Titan of Chains
by The Silent Blade
Summary: What happens to the Teen Titans when there's a new hero on the block? One who doesn't quite fit the mold of a traditional hero like everyone else. Watch him search for what it means to be a hero. He will discover the world is not so black and white. He just prays he will survive the experience. Slow start up but picks up in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**WARNING: This is my first fanfiction and my main character is an OC (original character). So bear with me and send me lots of reviews on everything from plot to sentence structure so that I can get better and bring you better fanfiction for the low, low price of… wait, I am not getting paid for this. **_**Damn it.**_

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It was a nice cool evening with the sun setting in the distance casting Jump City into streams of red and orange. Not that Raven would ever admit that out loud. She was part of this new group that called themselves the Teen Titans and lived in a giant tower shaped like a T. It was somehow both really original and really cliché at the same time.

But that was not what Raven was really thinking about right now. She was trying to get to her favorite book shop Original Tales. It was a book shop that had or could acquire old books for a reasonable fee. . Why else would she bother to have dressed in her civvies? She was wearing a black blouse with a long sleeved black and white striped shirt underneath. She had on regular blue jeans and some black converse on.

The team had told her that these would help her blend in when she did not want to be surrounded by their fans. And she always hated being surrounded by people.

Raven thought that she blended in rather well in spite of the short cut purple hair and grey skin. Since no one had given her more than a second glance or tried to get her autograph she counted it as a success. Well there were the men giving her these weird looks like she was food that freaked her out, but she just brushed it off. The guy who had stared at her until he ran into a pole was rather funny.

As she entered the book store she could see the man who ran it sitting at a counter in the back. The book store was moderately sized three story building. The first floor was for the common books while the second floor was for the rare books. The third floor is where the owner lived (not that she had ever been up there).

The Man who ran the book store looked to be in his forties even though Raven knew him to be a decade older. He gave her a warm smile as he saw her enter the store.

"Hello again. Are you here to look at that book again?"

"Yes." She answered.

He did not seem put off by her short monotone answer. Then again he was used to it since she was a regular customer.

He motioned her to the second floor. The second floor was off limits without permission.

As she walked up the stairs behind the owner she could see him pull out a set of keys to unlock the shelves so she could read the book. After they both put on gloves, the owner got the book she wanted to read and placed on a cloth on a table on the second floor.

The second floor looked like a library if a library had tinted locked doors on all their shelves to protect the books from both people and the environment. He locked the cabinet and want back downstairs without saying another word.

Raven didn't mind though. She was already staring at the book ready to read. He knew who she was and as thanks for protecting the city he gave her a huge discount on the reading time charge. Yay her.

Raven sat down and got absorbed into the book. Finally, a place she could relax away from all the noise (read Beast Boy) in the tower.

It was an ancient book on meditations and she hoped that it could help her control her emotions better.

"Hello."

Raven jumped into the air and gave a squeak at the unexpected noise. She looked up and saw a boy her age with short black hair, tanned skin, a black shirt that said 'Chaos, Panic, Disorder… My Work Here Is Done' and a pair of generic dark blue jeans.

"Who are you?" she asked a little tersely.

"Hey I am sorry I didn't mean to startle you, I was just bored and decided to say hello." He replied with his hands in the air in an 'I surrender' fashion.

"If you are bored why are you here?"

"Well for one I work here, and second I am new in town and have no idea where to go."

"Why don't you just hang out with friends from school?" Isn't that what normal teenagers did?

He looked at her uncomfortably while rubbing his neck. "I would if I had friends." He wasn't about to tell her he didn't even go to school.

"Well what do you want me to do about it?" Why was he telling her his problems?

He gave her an incredulous look.

"Um, nothing. I only told you because you asked."

She opened her mouth to argue but realized he was right. Why did she even bother to ask? This wasn't like her. She looked into his eyes thinking they might have the answer.

Violet meets gold in a stare down. Wait gold?

Yes, he had dazzling gold eyes. Wait, dazzling? What was wrong with her?

"Um, are you ok? The silent staring thing is kind of creeping me out. If you weren't so pretty and interesting to talk to I probably would have left already."

"Sorry."

"Don't be. Say do you want to-"Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by the owner coming up the stairs.

"Aeolus, there you are. Stop bothering the customers and come downstairs. You left all your restoration tools scattered across the work bench and I am not your maid."

"Sorry dad. I'll clean it up right now." He turned to look at Raven.

"I guess I will see you later… um, I never got your name."

"Ray." That was what she went by in civvies anyway.

"Nice to meet you Ray. I'm Aeolus. I guess I see you around." And with that he walked down the stairs without a second glance in her direction.

"Wow, my son isn't the social type. He rarely starts conversations unless it's to do his job." His now identified father remarked.

"Why have I never seen him around? And you never mentioned him before sir." Raven asked.

"How many times do I have to tell you to call me Joshua? He has been gone awhile. He was… sick and was just released about eight months ago. So to celebrate he went on a backpacking trip across Europe and Asia. He just came back on a cargo ship of all things last week." Still don't get why he didn't just fly back. But Aeolus has always been different.

Raven eyebrows rose slightly at that. "He took an eight month vacation?" Guess normal parents spoil their children.

"Well I had him handle jobs while he was there. He knows the trade and has the skills. All he lacks is some erroneous knowledge, experience, and a reputation in our field. So it was business and pleasure. Classic two birds one stone scenario." The savings in plane tickets alone more than paid for the trip.

The conversation was halted by Raven's T communicator going off. "Sorry I have to go. Put the time on my tab." That was another perk he gave her. He allowed her a tab.

"Sure, go save the city and all that jazz."

**Run strait into Chapter 2 (was originally supposed to be all one chapter)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Um… I got more PM's than reviews; a lot more.**

**Just to clear up some misunderstandings. While this story is NOT Raven x Beast boy do not assume I will leave our lovable green vegetarian out in the cold. I have big plans for him.**

**I would like to thank princesslolitatheorca654 for my very first review. I would also like to publically acknowledge Theboblinator for his excellent attention to detail and his deductive reasoning.**

**Finally I would like to note that the perspective will change to a more Aeolus centric perspective in the middle of the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, but I do own my OC and all related ideas. But, if I did own Teen Titans there would be at least one more season and it would have less filler.**

It has been a few weeks since Raven met Aeolus and she had to say that they got along really well. In fact she sometimes went to the book store just to see him. They even had tea together at a local shop once. It was going well except for…

"What do you know about this Aeolus guy?" Robin asked in his detective voice.

"Nothing except what he tells me. Robin he is not a threat, he is the son of a rare book shop owner. He is not some plot by Slade to destroy the city."

Robin had been paranoid about him since they first met.

"You don't know that. Everything about him is suspicious." Robin agued.

"Like what?" Did Robin really find something? Was her new best guy friend (as Starfire put it) just trying to get to the Titans through her?

"For example, did you know this is the first time he has been in this country in eight years? Or the fact that for the year before he came back he was in at least thirty different countries but his bank account has no transactions for that entire time? Or that he happened to _reaper_ in a book shop you frequent right before we run into Slade for the first time. How about the fact that his _father_ never mentioned him before you two met? And finally, isn't it strange that he won't come to the tower even though Cyborg offered him a tour?"

Robin felt that he had proven his point. There was also the fact that he had a high school diploma since he was fourteen and there were no records of where he has been from eight years old until he reappeared seven years later on his trip. And why did he come across the ocean on a cargo ship of all things?

"Hey Rob, are you still on the whole Aeolus is a spy thing? Man you have got to let it go." Cyborg said as he and Beast Boy entered the living room of the tower and saw Robin in his lecture mode again.

"Yeah Robin. I mean, we do owe him one for letting us crash at his place when the H.I.V.E. five took over the tower last week."

Robin couldn't see why they did not see how that made him even more suspicious. It would be just like this Slade to hire someone to take over the tower, and have a convenient friend where they could lay low. It was the perfect way to get a spy to earn their trust.

_Flashback_

_Robin and the team had just gotten their butts handed to them in their own home, THEIR OWN HOME! It was getting dark and they were all still wet from being thrown into the water. So it would be best to find somewhere to rest and formulate a plan of attack. But where could they go?_

_Robin turned around and saw his team argue and complain about their predicament. Not that he could blame them. He was pissed too._

"_Man, they better not eat all the food."_

"_They better stay out of my room."_

_And so on. Well he was the leader, so he best get on with the leading._

"_Hey team, were tired wet and sore. We are in no condition mentally or physically to take them on. I say we find somewhere to rest and dry off. Then we can formulate a plan to take back our tower."_

"_Ohhhh, good idea Robin I have always wanted to stay at one of these hotel you speak of often. I wish to try the pillow made of mint."_

_It was Beast Boy who burst everyone's bubble. "Um, that's great Star, but did anyone have the chance to grab any, oh I don't know, money on our way out the tower?"_

_Everyone looked around and realized that Beast Boy was right._

"_Well, what are we supposed to do then; sleep on the street?" Cyborg asked._

"_I might know somewhere we could stay. They might not say yes, but I don't think we have too many options right now." Raven said._

_That got everyone's attention._

"_Where?" Robin asked. _

_XXX_

_And that's how the Teen Titans ended up in front of a book shop called Original Tales. Why in front and not inside? Because the store was closed for the evening._

"_Um, Raven, I don't mean to sound rude but, why are we in front of an old book store after they are closed?" Beast Boy asked._

"_My friend and his father live above the book store. They may be willing to help willing to help us. Unless you have a better idea?" she asked staring at Beast Boy until he hid behind Cyborg._

"_Wait, your friend? Is it wrong that I am somehow both interested and scared of what kind of friends Raven has?"_

"_Well, we got no better ideas, so who is knocking?" Cyborg asked._

"_I will." Said Robin._

"_No, it is best if I do it." Raven argued._

_Everyone saw her point. It would be better if was the one who did the talking because; she was the only one who these people actually knew._

_The team walked to the side of the building and was met with a staircase that went from the first floor directly to the third. The only problem was that there was a metal cage surrounding the whole thing. _

"_So now what?" Asked Beast Boy_

"_Shall we not ring of the bell?" said Starfire pointing to the intercom against the wall._

"_Oh, duh." Laughed Beast boy uncomfortably._

_While this was going on Raven had already rung the bell and was waiting._

"_Hello?" asked a voice through the intercom._

"_Aeolus, its Ray, I and my friends need some help." Raven stated rather awkwardly._

_They immediately heard a buzz and the door to the fence unlocked. "Come on up and I'll see what I can do."_

"_Cool, at least he sounds friendly." Cyborg stated as the Titans walked to the front door._

_It opened revealing a boy around there age, standing 5'10" with short black hair, and a confused look on his face. He was wearing a plain black shirt, tan cargo shorts and one black sock on his right foot._

"_Um hi Ray, what's with the cape and leotard?" _

"_My real name is Raven and I am a member of the Teen Titans. This is my team and we need you and your dads help." Raven said quicker than Aeolus had ever heard her talk before. And she said it in one whole breath. She also had a slight blush on her cheeks from embarrassment. Whether from hiding who she was or from needing his help he did not know. Nor did he care. It made her look cuter than normal and that's saying something._

_Note to self, make Raven blush more often._

"_So that teen super hero team that lives in the giant T on the island?" When Raven nodded yes with an even bigger blush than before it made him smile. "And Raven is your real name?"_

_She nodded again with an even bigger blush._

_As fun as this was he better not push his luck. "Cool. Come on in Raven and Co. And tell me what your problem is and I will see how I can help."_

"_Co, what is this Co you speak of?" Starfire asked while hovering in the air about two inches._

"_Co is short for company, as in your accompanying Raven. I guess you did get the joke."_

"_Wait, that was a joke? Even BB's jokes are better than that." Cyborg remarked._

"_Yeah even my jokes are- Hey!"_

"_Anyway, what do I owe the pleasure of the Teen Titans in my home?" he asked getting to the point._

_Robin took this as his cue "Well the story is (insert story here)"_

"_(finish story and explanation here) and that's about it. So can you and your father help us?" finished Robin._

"_First, my dad is out of town and unreachable so your suck with just me. Second, what do you want for dinner? And finally which one of you three guys is going to take the couch?" Aeolus asked._

_This was followed by a shout of pizza toppings, many of which he didn't even know could go on pizza. And the most intense rock, paper, scissors three way that he had ever seen for who got the couch. By the dejected look Beast Boy made he had lost. _

_It kind of made him look like a kicked puppy. _

_No sooner had he thought that did Beast Boy actually turn into a real puppy. Complete with real time whining action. _

_XXX_

_After the pizza was ordered and eaten (read consumed) it was time for bed._

"_So the girls will share my dad's room. It's got the biggest bed and a private bathroom. Cyborg gets the guest bed since it's the second biggest. Since I already caught traffic light here snooping during dinner he gets the couch and BB gets my bed." Aeolus said._

"_What, I won rock paper scissors fair and square!" exclaimed Robin._

"_I don't like people going through my stuff so you're staying out of my room. And while we all value your opinion, this is my house so your opinion doesn't really matter in the end. And finally, if you need another reason refer to reason number two." _

_At that point everyone went to bed except for Robin who found their host sitting in a recliner chair next to the couch. "Are you going to watch me all night?" Robin asked._

"_No. All the beds AND the couch are taken. So it's either the chair or the floor. Now go to sleep, you have to storm the gates and whatnot tomorrow." Aeolus replied, already falling asleep._

"_Do you always talk like that?" Robin asked. Referring to Aeolus's random and odd turn of phrases._

"_When I am so inclined. So yes, it amuses me to talk like that. I usually do it when I am bored." Aeolus answered with his eyes closed and a smirk on his lips. _

"_Are you saying I am boring?" Robin accused._

_He never got an answer._

_(End Flashback)_

And then early the next morning they kicked those idiots' buts and took back the tower finding out some guy name Slade had orchestrated the whole thing. It would have been left at that but some things just didn't add up. Somehow the H.I.V.E. five knew their access codes and turned our own systems against us before attacking. He knew there had to be something more to this Slade and his plan then what they were seeing.

Then there was this Aeolus guy. Some of the stuff he did just didn't add up. Like why did he sleep in a chair instead of in his own bed. That seemed oddly generous. No, it was probably because he caught him snooping and he wanted him out of his room and in sight at all times.

What did he have to hide?

Robin had to admit he let Aeolus get under his skin. But after questioning Raven and doing some investigating of his own Robin knew that there was more to this Aeolus than meets the eye.

**Author Note: I know there was no action this chapter but rest assured there will be plenty next chapter. This was originally meant to be part of the first chapter. The first two chapters were to introduce the main character and flesh him out. It also set the tone for his future interactions. The next chapter is the Blackfire chapter. So lots of action and character development to look forward to. This one will take me a few days because this next chapter is an important one to the story. How much you will just have to wait and see. Also, the first person that can correctly guess what my main characters main power is before I reveal it will get a public disclaimer of their awesome. As always please leave a review at the door on your way out.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Did some editing to make the chapter flow better while writing chapter four. I would re-read if for no other reason than that I added some facts on Aeolus's background when I found a convenient spot in this chapter instead of waiting for chapter six or seven as originally planned to delve into Aeolus's back story.**

**Time for a new chapter of Titan of Chains. I received a couple of PM's guessing at what my main characters main power is. Even with clues to my PM's no one guessed it but a few got close. Oh well. While his power will be revealed this chapter, the intricacies of his powers will take a few chapters to understand. They are not really as complicated as they will seem.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans. If I did I would not be here. Instead I would be rolling around in piles of money. (Sigh) Oh well, on with the show… I mean story.**

Aeolus was at the fair. Why was he at the fair? Because Raven asked him to, and he got to hang around with the rest of Raven's friends, who had quickly became his friends.

Cyborg was a cool guy with cool tech. He had this upbeat attitude and an unwavering confidence in himself. Although, Cyborg wanted him to go to the tower for a tour way too much. I mean, he was flattered and everything, but after Cyborg explained their flawed security he wasn't setting foot in that place. Yeah, right, lets go to the well known and easily found home of super heroes on an isolated island whose only defense was a security system that could probably be bypassed by an eight year old. Oh wait, some pint size little kid named Gizmo already did. Yeah, no thanks.

Cyborg was currently playing the ring toss while Beast Boy cheered him on.

Beast Boy was a fun little guy to hang around with. Although, he was really dangerous for such a little guy. In fact, I believe even he doesn't realize how dangerous he could potentially be. But he was still an awesome guy to hang around. And Raven was right; he does have his funny moments. Though, she did make me swear to never to tell anyone that those words had ever left her lips. Especially Beast Boy.

He could see Starfire and Robin in the distance watching the fireworks together at the top of the Ferris wheel. He knew Robin must have somehow convinced the guy in charge of the ride it to stop it for them, because they had been sitting at the top for at least ten minutes already with absolutely no signs of coming down. He had to hand it to Robin, that was a pretty slick and romantic move.

He really wished those two would just get together already. Starfire was sweet, if not a little naive to how the world was.

And Robin was always following him with his eyes. At first he thought it was just his imagination on account of the mask, but his head turned every time he tried to move outside his peripherals. It was really starting to creep him out.

And of course there was Raven. He could honestly say that he has never met anyone quite like her. For someone who appeared so dreary, her presence always seemed to lighten up his day. They were even closer than they were before, now that he knew her secret identity.

"Yeah Cy, you did it." Beast Boy exclaimed as Cyborg managed to win the game of ring toss. "Here you go Raven." Beast Boy said as he proceeded to hand her a giant stuffed chicken.

It was too funny. "Ha Ha Ha!"

"It's not funny Aeolus." Raven tried intimidating him with a glare. His reaction proved it didn't work.

"You're right, it's not funny, it's hilarious. HA HA HA!" He was laughing so hard he started to double over.

"Titans we have an emergency." Robin exclaimed as he jumped into our midst.

"Where's Starfire?" inquired Beast Boy.

"She is the emergency. Civilians stay here." He said pointing at Aeolus with narrowed eyes.

"I have a name traffic light." Jerk always treated him with such suspicion. Sure he was hiding things, but none were bad per se.

"We don't have time for this, Titans move." Robin replied with a growl. And they all left him to chase the silhouette of Starfire and two other objects.

Were those giant flying purple octopus chasing Starfire across the sky? The sad part was that this didn't make the top ten of his weird shit list. Oh well, Starfire was a friend so he should help out. Although he would have to do it discreetly since he didn't want people to know what he could do. Or he would be pressured to join traffic lights team and live in that death trap of a Tower. All someone needed to do was shoot a missile at the thing and voila, no more Titans. Actually, he should really talk to Cyborg about that before some villain figured it out.

As Aeolus ran towards the docks he found that the Titans were already at the far end of the docks dealing with one of those tentacle things. However, they did not seem notice the one of them was swinging around low to hit them from behind. Perfect, he had a way to help them without being seen.

He turned around and squared off against the one coming from the Titans rear and conjured one silver kunai into each hand in a reverse grip attached to a dull silver chain. He spun them both perpendicular to the ground and when the octopus tentacle thing got within ten yards of him he let one fly and it sunk in deep into the head of the thing.

This caused it to shift course, and as it did he saw some kind of exposed panel on the side. He immediately let the second kunai fly attached to the chain and it struck true.

The thing started sparking and smoking before it crashed and exploded in a plume of awsome. As it did, Aeolus retracted his chain weapons back into his wrist and assumed the shell shocked civilian look.

Man that was easy. Although he did assume that it was Starfire who somehow blasted off the panel that exposed the weak point, lucky him.

"Aeolus what are you doing here?" Raven asked as she noticed him next to an exploded tentacle robot behind them. Guess in the confusion they forgot there were originally two of these things chasing Starfire. "What happened to the robot? Did you do this?" Raven asked accusingly.

Stupid Robin and his thrice damned paranoia. It was spreading. "First of all, that's a robot? You mean someone _purposely_ designed that creepy thing?" Well at least that explained the sparking followed by an explosion. He was glad his daggers were sharp enough to shred regular steel like paper and did not conduct electricity.

"Aeolus, don't dodge my questions." Ravens glare grew.

"Sigh. Fine, I was following you to see if I could help when this robot fell from the sky. Dumb Idea I know, but I just couldn't sit around and do nothing." For such an anti social guy, he really had a thing for helping people.

"And what do you know about these robots that attacked Starfire?" Robin interjected.

"Robin I do not think that our friend Aeolus would attack us." Said Starfire.

Robin could not believe they could not see it. There was something off with this guy. The more he investigated him the more things just did not add up. There was some critical piece he was missing to have this all make sense.

"Come on guys lets head back to the tower." Suggested Cyborg.

Aeolus immediately turned around and walked away. "And that is my cue to leave. See you guys later." Called Aeolus while waiving behind them.

"Come on guys, let's go home." Said Robin. Willing let the matter drop. _For now_.

XXX

Aeolus was invited to poetry night at a dreary coffee shop by Raven. He hated dreary places that tried their best to make you even more depressed. Besides there was way too much black eyeliner and black painted nails going around. And that was on the guys. Was that someone wearing _fake _vampire fangs in the corner dinking red punch?

This was sooo not his scene. He may be a recluse and had what most people would consider a tragic past, but he had risen above all dreariness; not try to pick up depressed girls with some sad past woe is me story in a dark coffee shop that served horrible tasting tea. Ugh.

He might be picky about the whole tea thing having been raised by warrior monks, but he had standards damn it. He idly wondered if Robin was pulling his hair out yet trying to fill in his life story. Raven had told him that Robin was running extensive background checks on his computer trying to piece his life together. Idiot, some stuff isn't digital and requires actual leg work to find answers on.

Or Robin could have just asked him. He probably wouldn't have told Robin anything, but he could have at least tried asking.

Anyway, where was Raven?

"This is the place I was talking about."

Aeolus turned around at the sound of Raven's voice to see Raven and some black haired girl he had never met walk through the door of the coffee shop. She had the same chakra signature as Starfire. Must be a Tameranian.

She was dressed similar to Starfire except she was wearing lack instead of purple and most of her visible skin was covered in some kind of metal armor.

Raven spotted him and she along with the dark haired chick made their way over to him.

"Aeolus this is Starfire's sister Blackfire." Raven introduced.

"Nice to meet you Blackfire. I've heard about you from Starfire. You're her older sister from Tamaran. I didn't know you were going to stop by."

"Star talks about me? Well that's a surprise. Though, she did mention you in her transmissions. Raven's boyfriend right?"

"No, unfortunately not. By the way when did you get into town?" Cue Raven blushing. Man he never got tired of messing with her.

"Just last night. I waited for Star in their towers living room."

"Wait, _in_ the tower living room? How did you get in? I thought Cyborg updated the security."

"It was easy to get past. I didn't even know there _was_ security until Cyborg and Robin mentioned it later." Blackfire laughed.

And they wonder why he never wanted to go to the tower. That thing is a death trap waiting to happen. And knowing his luck he will be there when it happens.

"What did my baby sister say about me anyway?" asked Blackfire with interest.

"She said glorbooth ma dein dak ra faroom'ka glugla. Of course I am paraphrasing since she went into the Tamarinian verses of family and bonds. And I don't want stand here for three hours trying to remember all those phrases."

"Wait, you speak Tamarinian?" asked Raven in astonishment.

"Not the whole language, yet." he replied with a shrug.

"But with Starfire's lessons and a bunch of tomes she gave me on my computer I am coming along. Give me another two or three months and I should be able to gain a working knowledge of it. It wouldn't take so long but Tamarinian has the most idioms I have ever seen. I think it is why Starfire has so much trouble with our idioms since her understanding of our language is literal verses cultural. Though, that doesn't change the fact that I am still super jealous of your species ability to assimilate languages just by kissing." He finished explaining to see that everyone in the dreary little coffee shop was staring at him like fish out of water, including Blackfire and Raven.

"Um, Raven, didn't we already have the conversation about staring at me the first time we met?" Would they stop staring at him? He didn't even say anything strange or noteworthy.

"Dude, are you some kind of genius or something?" Remarked one of the makeup wearing Goth boys.

Aeolus looked around awkwardly. There had to be a way out of this now awkward conversation. Wait, I know! "Aren't we here to read some poetry?" Change the subject.

XXX

After some more awkward staring and answering questions about how many languages he knew. They seemed to think that over fifty was amazing. Either they are all easily impressed or he should get out more. It seems living with warrior monks for seven years in the Himalayan Mountains halfway around the world was not conducive to being able to relate with people his own age. Huh, who knew?

Well the rest of the night was boring. He didn't care how much Raven tries to get him into this; it will never be his thing to sit in a dark room reading bad depressing poetry. Only like three people weren't terrible. Blackfire, Raven, and some other chick were actually pretty good. Though the other chick glared at him when he clapped after her poetry reading. I guess clapping after a depressing poem was a faux pas.

He wasn't sure if he was just socially retarded in general or just in situations like these. But he was starting to lean towards the former one.

Was this how Starfire felt when interacting with others? Because it was both frustrating and embarrassing.

After the reading they went their separate ways.

XXX

Two days later he hears from Starfire that last night her sister tried to frame her after they got attacked at a night club (he had been invited but had declined). It was the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak.

And this was how he ended up in front of his father explaining his decision.

"Dad, I am going to be a superhero."

"Ok." He replied lamely.

"…what did you say? Ok? Wow, that was easy." Why was that so easy?

"What, did you think I would say no? You have both the abilities and the training to back up your claim. We lived in the Himalayan Mountains for years while you learned to control your powers under the threat of insanity. Heck, you learned weapons and tactics from a reformed League of Shadows member hiding at the temple. But I have some conditions. First and foremost you _must_ have a secret identity. I also want you to still finish learning our trade and doing jobs for me. I will pay you and it gives you a cover. And finally be careful not to get cocky." Dad then proceeded to pull out a cardboard box and set it on the table. "Here, this is my get started gift."

Sometimes I forget how smart my dad is. He didn't know whether it was impressive or creepy. Probably a bit of both. His dad already knew what he was going to do. He was just waiting for me to figure it out myself. Aeolus opened the box and saw some odd things. He finds yellow motorcycle goggles with a silver frame, a plain black hoodie, Black combat cargo pants with karate inseam for high kicks, all black running shoes, a plain face mask, and a plain dark blue muscle shirt inside. He moved the clothes and saw a set of three black throwing knives and a short three inch half serrated combat knife. He also saw a black Kevlar belt with button pouches all around.

"What's with the goggles and pouches?" asked Aeolus.

"The _yellow_ goggles are to hide your unique_ golden _eyes. They also prevent you from being blinded by sand on accident or on purpose. As for the pouches, I know you know how to make smoke bombs and their related paraphernalia. Remember what I said about being cocky. It is better to have ace on standby. Remember it's better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it. Since I know you and you are going to solo this, might I suggest some steel wire and a lock pick kit. I know you know how to pick non electric locks. You never know when skills like that might come in handy."

Whoa. My dad put more thought into this then _I_ did. "Any ideas on a name?"

"No, that is all you. Maybe you should put on your costume and try it out. Work out any wardrobe kinks and maybe wearing it will give you ideas."

He went to his room to get dressed and grab some smoke bombs he made, caltrops and a lock pick kit he ordered from a magazine, steel wire he got from a music store, manriki (think of Batman's bolas), and a small flash bang he just made. His dad wasn't the only one who thought ahead.

He left via the roof since they had roof top access. He should probably find a place that _wasn't _his home to change into… damn he still couldn't think of a name, in case someone spotted him. His home was _less _defendable than Titans tower.

XXX

Man this patrol thing was boring. Now he knew why Beast Boy and Raven complained about it so much. And worst of all he still had no idea on a name while he slinked of in the shadows. Wait, Shadow, simple, intimidating, and seemed in line with his color choice. Besides he had been out here for three hours and couldn't think of a name to do with his chain ability that didn't have fetish jokes popping up at every turn. And his eye ability was more intimidating and useful if he kept his mouth shut about it.

Not that his eyes actually did anything. He could just see through illusions, people's chakra, and a perception of magical energies. Too bad he lacked the innate talent and ability to actually perform magic. His eyes could also see faster than he could move and he had awesome night vision. Now that he thought about it, it was an excellent idea to protest his eyes.

He was in the middle of his musing when he heard an alarm go off down the street and high tailed it over to see if he could do something useful this night.

As he approached a jewelry store where the alarm was sounding he came onto the scene of Beast Boy and Cyborg already taking care of the problem. How did they beat him here? He was a block away when the alarm went off.

"How did you find us so quickly?" asked one of three now subdued masked men.

Yes, maybe he would find out how they did it. He sneaked closer and stayed in the shadows.

"Beast Boy saw your flashlights inside before the alarm went off. In fact we sent off the alarm to smoke you out." Replied Cyborg.

Both logical and smart. He was taking notes. No he was really taking notes. He had a small waterproof notepad in hand and was writing down what he heard. He would have to keep that alarm trick in mind. Not only does it flush out your enemy into a scenario of your terms, it also knocked your enemy off his game due to panic. But, you did lose some of the element of surprise since it raises their guard.

"What are you doing?"

He turned around to see Raven floating behind him with trash cans floating behind her, already moving to strike. This was the first time he wasn't happy to see Raven.

He reacted instinctively and ran right at her while dodging her projectiles and launched his chain with a weight attached to it. It was one of the three tips he could conjure on the chain and in his opinion the most versatile since he could change the weight of the well, weight at will.

Raven dodged slightly to the right. Perfect. He twisted the chain with a quick flick of his wrist and the chain wrapped around Raven five times. All of Ravens flying objects suddenly fell to the ground with Raven as her powers suddenly left her. He continued his forward dash and caught a surprised and slightly scared Raven. She must have been freaking out as to why she suddenly lost her powers. The tips might have special abilities but so did his chain. His chain could suppress abilities and powers of those it wrapped around. The more powerful the person the more links it would take.

Unfortunately it wouldn't work against Cyborg since his abilities were robotic. He could still wrap the chains around Cyborg to bind him; it just wouldn't suppress his abilities.

Raven was about to scream in his arms so he shushed her and set her gently down on the floor of the dark alley. He made calming motions with his hands and realized he had a dilemma. How could he convince her he was friendly without talking to her? If he spoke she would recognize his voice immediately.

Then he noticed the note pad still in his other hand, duh. He was an expert restorer (dad was a master), he could change his penmanship to be unrecognizable as his own and he could communicate with her without speaking. Wow, his dad was right about having gear as back up. He had only brought the pad in his cargo pocket to jot down ideas on his alias and some costume faults he noticed.

He quickly jotted down 'I am not the enemy. I am a new hero. If I let you go will you not attack me?' and showed it to Raven hoping to resolve this before Beast Boy and Cyborg noticed Raven was missing.

"How am I supposed to read that in a dark alley?" Raven asked with a lifted eyebrow.

Damn it. Her night vision wasn't as good as his. He quickly tuned the page and jotted down 'portable flashlight' since even he could not see in pitch black.

He quickly moved her to the mouth of the alley and showed her the note again under light. He was running out of time before her teammates grew suspicious.

She read the note quickly and said "Portable flashlight?"

Huh? Oh, he forgot to turn the page back. He quickly did and showed her again.

"Oh. Why should I trust you?" Raven asked with suspicion.

Aeolus gestured to the chain.

"Oh yeah. Good point, you could have hurt me if you wanted to." Raven replied

"RAVEN!" shouted Beast Boy.

Shit! Aeolus quickly retracted his chain and bolted down the alley like a bat out of hell. He slipped his note pad back in his pocket and flung out a new chain out with a dagger tip to the top of the wall at the end of the alley. Then he retracted the chain back into his wrist, using it like a winch to get him to the top of the wall and scrambled over and used the same chain to safely speed drop to the other side. With a quick flick of the wrist he dislodged the dagger and continued running while the chain finished retracting.

Beast Boy tried to dice bomb him from the sky as a hawk. So he let out another weighted chain and wrapped him up with a little slack for his transformation. Beast Boy immediately transformed back into his boy persona removing all the slack he gave him. He knew this would happen and didn't want Beast Boy to be squeezed to death. He didn't have time to be diplomatic so he chopped him in the back of the neck to knock him out and retracted his chain and kept on running.

He noticed neither Raven nor Cyborg had followed him. Not that it made him stop running. Good thing he was in amazing shape as he kept running for ten minutes faster than most people could flat out sprint. Thankfully he was fast. Like Olympic track star fast.

When he stopped he looked around for anyone following him. Since he could _see_ chakra Raven couldn't hide from him in the shadows with or without her. And he could recognize beast boy was not a natural animal regardless of his form due to his chakra signature. Though, since his transformations were all green, his chakra sight wasn't necessary to identify Beast Boy.

His eyes did have limits though. His chakra sight saw all normal people as the same shade. So people like Cyborg and Robin had the same signature as everyone else. Cyborgs robot parts weren't alive so they gave off nothing. He also couldn't see through cover so you could just hide behind a wall. In fact that helped to reinforce the idea that his eyes weren't perfect. He could just see more than ordinary people.

Only people with special abilities like Raven and Beast boy had unique signatures. Even though Starfire had a different signature from the rest of the Titans she and Blackfire had identical signature shades since they were the same species.

Well this night was a bust. The only action he got was against the Titans. He quickly jotted down 'hood limits peripheral vision' in his note pad and headed home.

XXX

"What do you mean you were beaten?" Robin exclaimed.

"I was caught by surprise. Besides he claims to one of the good guys." Defended Raven.

Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg had returned from patrol to find Robin awake in front of his computer in the tower living room. So they told Robin about their encounter with this new supposed hero. No one was happy with the current situation. He had taken out Raven and Beast Boy in one move after being surprised from behind. That spoke of professional training. Beast Boy doesn't even remember anything after trying to dive bomb the mysterious individual.

First he was dive bombing him from behind and the next thing he remembers was being shaken awake by Cyborg with a crick in his neck in the same alley.

Raven was wondering how he suppressed her powers like that. That was a very dangerous ability. If he could do that so easily who knew what else he could do.

Robin was pissed that he had no clue about this individual. His MO and abilities did not match any known hero or villain. He was also apparently very secretive. He ran at the first sign of conflict even though it was obvious he had the skills to fight back and even refused to give his voice away. Raven said he was hiding in the shadows taking notes on them. Why and for what purpose? This was a bad sign. Could he be working for Slade?

"Maybe we should try to talk to him next time. I mean it seems he only attacked in defense. I probably wasn't attacked because I didn't attack him." Reasoned Cyborg.

"Fine next time we see him we try to talk. But don't let your guard down. We don't know his motives and he is obviously dangerous." Said Robin.

Everyone agreed and went to bed. Tomorrow was a new day.

**And so ends my longest chapter yet. This was longer than chapter one and two combined. So I introduced Aeolus and his powers to the Titans. There is some more to his powers but you guys got the bulk of it. You see how while my character has skills he lacks experience. Also don't worry I will delve into his backstory later. Favorite, Follow, Review! The more favorites, follows and reviews I get the more motivated I am to bring out chapters faster. I already have the story through the second arc in my head. All it requires is some tweaking and a whole lot of typing to bring to life.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry guy I have been extremely busy the last few weeks. Anyway I am super pleased with the number of views I have been getting. **

**First I would like to address **_**some**_** of the fifty PM's I have received so far. Most of them revolved my main characters backstory in some way. His backstory will be explained in due time. Heck, we don't get Raven's backstory until the end of season four in cannon. While it won't take quite that long with Aeolus, it will still take some time to delve into his entire backstory. I had his entire backstory done in my head before I typed the first word of chapter one so don't worry, all will be explained in due time.**

**Also please go to my profile and vote on my next story. Half the reason I write is because if I didn't my head would explode. So it is only a matter of time before I have multiple stories' going simultaneously. The pole is just my way of prioritizing my mind for my next story. **

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own the Teen Titans. But as always, I still own my OC and all related ideas.**

* * *

Aeolus and Cyborg were in his room as Cyborg explained how to use this new and advanced piece of technology.

"-and that's how you make a phone call." Cyborg explained.

Aeolus groaned. For something called a smart phone, it sure made him feel dumb. Living in the mountains with monks since you were eight was not indicative to being tech savvy. He was just glad he knew how to use a computer at all since his dad had owned a laptop for a few years. Cyborg was here to bring him into the twenty first century.

"Man, how do you not know this stuff?" Seriously, how can a fifteen year old not know how to use a smart phone?

"Umm… I grew up away from technology and my family business is really old books." Please buy it. I mean it was sort of the truth. There was no way he was going to tell them he grew up in the Himalayas with his father and a bunch of monks. That would bring up questions such as _why_ and he was not prepared to answer those just yet.

"Ok man, but you got to tell me, how does a store that sells old books stay in business? And why is your dad always gone?" Cyborg asked while looking around Aeolus's room. Was Robin right? Was there something he was hiding?

Wait, what? "Raven never explained what me and my dad do?" Aeolus asked with shock. Man, Raven was BIG on the whole privacy thing if she never even told them something as mundane as what we did for a living.

"Well, it's a little complicated. Yes, we sell really old books ranging from hundreds to millions of dollars. But the more expensive books are actually on consignment and we just get a percentage of the profit from selling them. We also translate, authenticate and restore old pieces for a fee. For example my dad has handled the original bible among other things. Our services are not very common since very few people need people with our specific skill set. But, on the flip side since we are rare we charge a lot for our services. It also doesn't hurt that my dad is recognized as the best in the business. " Aeolus explained.

"So is that why you know fifty languages?" Cyborg asked.

"Pretty much. Some I can just read since they are so old that no one speaks them anymore. Also, even though I have impeccable written understanding my speech screams foreigner. It is actually recognizing the subtle nuances in writing styles due to region and period that make my dad so much better than me." Aeolus replied with a shrug.

"That's cool bro'. Now let's learn about all the cool aps." Said Cyborg getting back on track.

Aeolus visibly flinched. This was going to be a _long_ day.

XXX

Aeolus was on patrol at the docks trying to find out where an illegal weapons shipment he had found out about was going to go down. Over the past few weeks as Shadow Chain he had gotten a pretty good idea of the criminal underworld in Jump City and learned the stupidity of_ reacting_ to villains instead of anticipating them. A few threats here, a sprinkle of exaggerated rumor there and just a dash of mystique made it so easy to start milking low level thugs for information on the bigger fish. _Finally_, his days of scouring the streets of Jump City, praying he caught at least a pick pocket so his night wasn't completely wasted were coming to an end. He was finally going to stop a crime above the Good Samaritan level.

The thought brought anime tears to his face in joy. He didn't even have to think of his own super hero name. The fact he attacked from the shadows with chains made the low level criminals he caught give the moniker Shadow Chain. It was better than anything he had come up with at least.

Aeolus slinked across the rooftops in his new and improved costume. He had forgone the hot and vision limiting hoodie and replaced it with a black long sleeved shirt that had a blue stripe going down each sleeve leading to his new fingerless gloves. His gloves were black leather with carbon fiber knuckles to protect his fists, while hurting others faces, and any other body part he had the inkling to strike at the time. He had replaced his black running shoes with black steel toe combat boots for the same reason and stuffed the hem of his combat pants into them. Finally, he bought a new pair of motorcycle goggles that were exactly like the old ones except the silver frame was now a dull grey. Everything else about his costume was still the same.

As Aeolus went from one warehouse rooftop to the next he had to be careful. There was a full moon out and the roofs were all metal with cheap glass skylights.

Speaking of skylights, he spotted with his little eye, a weapons deal going on in the warehouse below him. He was finally going to do something useful other than catching a few pickpockets and some muggers.

There seemed to be ten guys down there. Seven near the door of the warehouse and three near a stack of crates marked Luthor Corp on the far side directly underneath the skylight.

He grabbed the parachute cord he had in a pouch and tied it to an anchor point on the ceiling. Since he only had thirty feet and the boxes were almost forty feet down he would still drop at least four feet even if he hung at the end of the rope with his feet dangling. He should be able to drop that far without making noise.

He slowly lowered himself towards the top of the box, making sure he wasn't spotted. A bunch of guys doing illegal weapons deals probably had weapons of their own and he was in no way bullet proof. They had guns and he had his chains. But they had ten guns and he could only use five chains at once. So he had to play this smart and whittle down their numbers, while not letting them know that _he_ was the one doing it. He just needed an opening to capitalize.

He sneaked towards the group using the shadows in the dark warehouse as cover.

"So you got our stuff? Boss Zucco doesn't like to be betrayed." Spoke the lead guy coming into the warehouse.

"Of course we got the stuff. Top grade weaponry for top dollar. You better have our money or we will demonstrate their effectiveness on you." Threatened one of the three guys standing near the crates he was currently hiding behind.

Man, tensions were high. This whole situation was like a bomb waiting to go off. Actually, considering this was a weapons deal that may be literal. If he could somehow get them to fight each other he could systematically pick them off while they thought it was their enemy. He might even be able to take them all out without them ever knowing it was him. But what were the odds of a perfect opportunity just falling into his lap?

"You better not try anything or we will fill you full of holes. ONE sign of a trap and you won't be leaving here alive." Said the lead buyer waving what appeared to be a briefcase full of money in his right hand.

I guess the old saying 'ask and ye shall receive' still held true. Not wasting a second Aeolus grabbed one of his throwing knives and threw it into the right shoulder of the man with the briefcase just as he was opening the briefcase to show the money inside.

The results were immediate. The man with the briefcase violently jerked while throwing the briefcase and screamed. The briefcase flew the air causing money to rain down on everyone. As if raining money was the signal everyone except the guy with the knife in his shoulder opened fire with bullets on the buyer's side and lasers on the sellers. Guess laser weapons was what they were selling.

As quickly as it started it was over. The roaring sounds of weapons ceased, leaving the only the man with the knife in his shoulder breathing harshly through clenched teeth amid a field of raining money. Everyone else was on the ground not moving.

What the hell? Now what did he do? Then he heard the sounds of sirens coming towards his location causing the wounded criminal to try to make a break for it. No way was he going to walk out of here back at square one. Aeolus let his chain fly and it wrapped around the fleeing criminal before yanking the criminal towards him.

"What the hell is going on!?"

"Just a friendly interrogation." Aeolus responded while coming out of the shadows. Wow, he really did live up to his name.

"I won't tell you anything you ninja wannabe." The criminal sneered.

Time to generate some more exaggerated rumors. He calmly placed his hand on the guys head and adopted a posture of intense concentration.

"Now let us begin. Who do you work for? Hmm, oh I see, some man named Zucco." The look of shock on the criminals face was priceless. "What are you here for? Oh, some advanced weapons, wow you are really helpful." The guy was turning white as a sheet. "So what happened here? Hmm, oh wow, betrayed by the sellers. You have had a pretty bad day." By now the guy was freaking out. Now for the finishing touch. "You know there is only one problem with this ability. It really screws people up if the interrogation goes on too long. It can cause madness and delusions. It also causes erectile dysfunction for some odd reason. So no more sex _ever_ if this keeps up much longer." Aeolus replied with a shrug. He also very subtly squeezed the hand holding the criminals head ever so slightly.

The trick was to ask questions you already knew the answer to. By placing his hand on the guys head and pausing in between questions for dramatic effect, he gave the illusion of being able to read minds. Then all he did was list some horrible side effects if it continued and people couldn't spill their guts fast enough. It seems the threat of never being able to use their tool again caused most men to freak out more than the insanity part.

"WAIT! I will tell you whatever you want! Just please stop!" The criminal screamed.

Score. Who the hell needed some complex interrogation method? Fake psychic powers and a threat to a man's junk seemed to cause these low level thugs to crumble just fine.

"Ok. But if you lie to me…" He placed both hands on either side of the thugs face.

"I g-got it." The thug was actively shivering.

Aeolus removed both his hands from the man's head, but otherwise did not move. He needed to keep up the pressure so the guy wouldn't call his bluff. Better start with the important questions first incase this guy wised up.

"What did your boss need these weapons for?" Aeolus asked.

"We are going to take out the Teen Titans and then this whole city. Apparently Robin ruined his life back in Gotham, so this is revenge as well as business." The thug quickly replied.

"How does your boss intend to get rid of the Titans?" This could be bad. He had to find some way to warn the Titans. He knew they could handle themselves but a warning would reduce the risk dramatically.

"The plan is brilliant. Boss Zucco plans to rob a bank and lead the Titans on a chase to where everyone will be waiting. Then we blast them." He replied with pride.

That was a _brilliant_ plan? Simple and effective, yes; brilliant, not so much. Then again thugs aren't hired for their high IQ's.

"When will this plan take place and where is the ambush?" Those sirens were getting way too close. This would have to be his last question if he wanted to slip away before the police got here.

"Day after tomorrow at noon. He will rob the Jump City First Bank and lead them towards the new mall wing under construction. Boss Zucco says that way people will see that we are greater than those puny Titans while we get a whole bunch of loot to start our new criminal empire with at the same time."

Huh, not a bad plan actually. Sure it was an all or nothing gamble, but this Zucco guy was at least trying to stack the deck with these weapons. He heard the cops pull up outside the warehouse and took that as his cue to get out of there. He retracted the rest of his chain and yanked the knife out of the guys shoulder. Much to his apparent discomfort.

"OW! You asshole!" He screamed.

Aeolus ignored him as he let one of his kunai chains out and began swinging it to gain some momentum. He threw the chain as hard as he could towards the skylight and had it pull him up to the roof. How come his blade never slipped out of inanimate until he wanted to? Must be some aspect of the blade he did not understand yet. He sure was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

XXX

(2 Hours Later)

Aeolus finally got home. He had to change and take a shower before going to bed. He had to get up early tomorrow since he had to open the shop in exchange for getting the afternoon off. He was going to a picnic with Raven and the rest of the Titans tomorrow. He had to somehow use this opportunity to somehow discreetly warn the Titans about the trap.

Then again, he had no idea if the plan was still on without the weapons. He could at least find a way to warn them about this Zucco that seemed to hate Robin so much.

XXX

Aeolus was in the park the next day working on the two grills they had set up for the picnic. Two grills were needed because not only were there six people, two of them were Cyborg and Beast Boy. He just hoped two grills of food was enough. He had steak, chicken, two racks of ribs, meat kabobs, vegetable kabobs and tofu mixed with some vegetables cooking on some aluminum foil.

They had enough food for at least ten people. Maybe he should have brought some more.

Raven was meditating under a tree while Beast Boy and Cyborg were behind him drooling over the smell. Starfire was hovering in the background; no really she was literally hovering behind his head staring at the earth meats. And then of course there was Robin who was standing right in front of him and glaring at him. Well if he was going to stare at him like that Aeolus might as well have some fun. At Robins expense of course.

"So Robin, any new info on the mystery that is my life?" Aeolus teased.

Robin's eye twitched.

"Find out that I am some deep cover alien recruit for the League of Shadows sent here to get close to Raven so that I can steal Beast Boy's tofu as fuel for our doomsday weapon?" Come on Robin give me a reaction.

Robin's whole face twitched.

"Robin, are you alright. You seem to have to twitch. On my world that is a symptom of a Valargus parasite. We would go up into space for three days to cause them to suffocate." Starfire supplied helpfully.

Robin looked like he was about to have a seizure. Then he relaxed and got this victorious smirk on his face.

"How do you even know what the League of Shadows is?" Robin replied with a smug sounding voice. Robin had Aeolus, he knew it. They told him he was being paranoid and obsessed by not trusting Aeolus. Well ha, he was right.

"One word for you, Raven. And on that note, Starfire, would you tell Raven that the barbeque is ready." Aeolus responded.

"Ok."

But Robin would not give up just yet. "Where have you been for the last seven years? I see records of your father except where he lived from where you were eight until one year ago."

"My dad is where I was. This is to say not here. Robin, just give up. You obviously have not found the answer yet, and I don't plan on telling you so just drop it." Aeolus responded. "And on that _final_ note, foods up."

"Raven, hey, try some tofu!" Beast Boy tried to get Raven to try some 'tofudie goodness' as he called it.

"Beast Boy, I respect the fact that you don't eat meat. So please respect the fact that I don't eat fake meat." Raven explained.

After that the Titans ate and Starfire learned the wonders of mustard. After that the Titans minus Raven and Aeolus went to play football, because neither Raven nor Aeolus were that social. In fact if it wasn't for Raven, Aeolus would have no friends in Jump City.

As the Titans were playing ball Cyborg just stopped. Like in all of his electronics turned off and he froze in place stopped. As the Titans all went to their downed friend he turned on or woke up. Aeolus wasn't entirely sure; his new phone still gave him headaches much less something as complicated as Cyborg.

Cyborg assured everybody that he was fine. He just had to go and change his power cell every few years. Cyborg thankfully explained to Aeolus that a power cell was similar to a battery and his needed to get replaced.

As Cyborg left the Titans got an alarm for an emergency in a junk yard. Why the Titans were called for a junkyard problem was beyond Aeolus, but it was something to do. Besides it would give him an opportunity to warn the Titans that there was a new player in town out to get them.

He was about to follow them until he realized he left his costume at home. A home that was in the opposite direction of the junkyard from the park. Oh well, it was not like the Titans were waiting for him.

XXX

When Aeolus finally made it to the junkyard and it was empty. He guessed that he must have missed all the action and was about to leave when he noticed a small robot carrying something to a dumpster in the middle of the junkyard.

Aeolus had nothing better to do and who knew, this may lead to something eventful. Aeolus watched as the robot went into the dumpster and did not come back out. When Aeolus looked into the dumpster he saw that it had no bottom and led strait into a hole in the ground.

So Aeolus tethered a piece of his chain and went down the hole. It was pitch black so Aeolus got out his flashlight and looked around. He was surprised to see an actual tunnel underneath a junkyard. This city was just weird.

Aeolus was walking down the tunnel when he heard footsteps and what sounded like machinery getting closer to him. He panned his flashlight around to see robots coming at him from the far end of the tunnel with blades and other sharp things pointing in his direction. Rather than wait for the robots Aeolus ran at them with two conjured blades in reverse grip and dived in among them slashing away. The robots started to surround him so Aeolus let one of the kunai fly and swung it in a circle with its chain. He might not be able to use his chains suppression ability on them but cutting them up worked just fine. This destroyed the robots closest to him and gave him some breathing room. They weren't fast but they had numbers on their side. They seemed to want to keep him from going down the tunnel so naturally that was where Aeolus wanted to go.

XXX

At first taking out droves of killer robots was fun and exciting. Now it was just monotonous. Just how long was this stupid tunnel anyway?

After another five minutes of destroying these things Aeolus finally came to the end of the tunnel and to a large metal door. And suddenly it hit him that he had no idea what was beyond this door. Aeolus tensed getting ready for anything and prepared to slash his way through the door when he noticed a panel with a green light next to the door that said 'UNLOCKED'. There was no way he had just fought through a horde of killer robots get to the giant reinforced metal door at the end only to find out it was unlocked.

Aeolus stood there trying to figure out if this was a trap and whether he should push the convenient green button when the decision was taken out of his hands by the sounds of frantic pleading followed by screams. Aeolus wasted no more time and hit the button causing the doors to open and jumped into the scene of what appeared to be Cyborg strapped to a table screaming with a cable connecting his head to someone else's.

Aeolus was about to charge that someone else when they started screaming and fell to the floor disconnecting the cable connecting them together and stopping Cyborgs screams. Aeolus used this opportunity to let one of his chains fly and tie up the other person. He was stopped from doing anything else by Cyborg.

"Stop!" exclaimed Cyborg. Cyborg then proceeded to free himself since the botched procedure had caused his locked systems to unlock and his bindings to disengage. Cyborg then proceeded to have a talk with fixit and came to an understanding.

Aeolus saw that he was not needed and in fact felt like the preverbal third wheel. So he retracted his chain and tuned around and left. Or would have if he did not turn around to see the rest of the Teen Titans standing in the open doorway. Aeolus had a bad feeling about this.

"Let Cyborg go!" Robin exclaimed

Aeolus gave them a confused look before turning sideways and gesturing to the perfectly fine Cyborg behind him. Maybe it would be fine after all.

"Hey that's the guy that attacked Raven!" exclaimed Beast Boy.

Robin wasted no time after hearing that. "Titans Go!"

Robin, Beast Boy and Starfire went for Aeolus when Cyborg yelled "Stop!" and Raven levitated some random objects to block off the Attack on Aeolus. Even Fixit helped by causing some of his creations to surround the attacking Titans.

Aeolus heaved a sigh of relief and discreetly looked around. There was only other way out of here to his right so Aeolus dropped a piece of paper from his pocket, sprinted across the lab and did not look back. After all that he had no idea what was going on and ended up running from the good guys. Man he was pathetic. What he lacked was information. If he did not know where crimes where or what crimes were being committed how was he supposed to help?

Well he had one crazy idea, but it would have to wait until tonight.

XXX

Robin wasn't sure what to do. First they fight Mumbo who they thought had captured Cyborg only to find out he was instead captured by this Fixit who was really a good guy. They barge in on someone that has attacked Raven and Beast Boy before only for Raven to defend him. Apparently he was also a good guy. But why the hell did he bolt out of a side exit at the first opportunity if he was a good guy. It made no sense. Now the Titans were standing awkwardly in Fixit's lab.

"Come on Rea', why did you stop us from beating up the guy you tied you up in the ally way?" asked Beast Boy.

"Because he was only defending himself. He did not hurt me even though he could have that time nor is Cyborg hurt in anyway." Raven explained calmly.

"He hurt me! He may have played nice' nice in that alley with you when he tied _you_ up and but he knocked me out!"

"Your point?" Raven deadpanned.

"Titans that is enough! Raven, Beast Boy is right. We don't know enough about him to tell anything one way or another. You shouldn't have stopped us; we need to work as a team." Robin looked at where the mysterious goggle wearing person was and found a piece of paper on the floor. What's this?

_Dear Robin,_

_I thought you would like to know that someone named Zucco is in town and is gunning for you. There was supposed to be a trap involving a bank chase and an ambush at the malls new unfinished wing tomorrow, but I derailed there plans a bit so I don't know if it's still going down. So keep an eye out._

_Shadow Chain_

_P.S. Just so you know, I am a good guy. _

Zucco was in town!? That bastard killed his family! He would have to take care of this himself.

"Robin, what is it?" Starfire asked with concern. She had never seen Robin with such a dark look.

"It's nothing. Titans, move out." Robin then turned around and left with the note in his clenched fist.

XXX

Aeolus was back in his outfit later that night walking down the same dark tunnel as before except there were no lights this time. Who would have thought that something as mundane as a small LED flashlight would come in handy so many times?

He made his way back to that same metal door as before without any resistance. The only difference was that the panel now said 'LOCKED' in red. So Aeolus did what anyone else would have done in a similar situation, he knocked on the door. He did not have to wait long for the door to open and for Fixit to greet him.

"Oh, hello again, how may I help you?" inquired Fixit politely.

"I have something important to ask you." Replied Aeolus.

Fixit was intrigued.

* * *

**And… done. With this chapter at least. As always please review, follow and favorite my story. The more I get the faster I type. Also I respond to most of my reviews, so if you have a question, comment, complaint or ego stroking praise go ahead and blast away.**

**Don't forget to go to my profile and vote on my next story.**

**I am extremely excited for the next chapter. I have been looking forward to writing the next chapter for some time.**


	5. Raven's Mind Part 1

**Finally the chapter that I have been waiting to write since the beginning of this story. I am going to introduce some more plot points and set up for the next arc at the same time. I will also go more into his past. Finally you will start to see the limitations, and eventually, the weaknesses of my characters abilities.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans in case you were wondering. Still own Aeolus though.**

* * *

Aeolus was at home doing some studying. Studying what exactly? Magical symbols and there uses. Even though neither his father nor he had the ability to perform magic the magical community had a huge amount of old tomes making them one of their biggest clients. And it had now fallen to Aeolus as the one who took care of these contracts.

Aeolus had abilities so he could defend himself against most things and he had been trained in mental defense by the monks who he had once lived with so he could defend against attacks on his mind as well. He would say his dad was lucky to know the monks that were able to help him with his _problem_ when he was eight, but it wasn't luck, it was repayment.

While his father wasn't out saving the world directly, he was never one to watch potential atrocities occur when he had the ability to stop them. When my father would work on magical texts he would be ushered though libraries and safe houses full of magical texts and artifacts. When he saw the truly evil works he would tell the organization that the monks belong to and they would take care of it.

That was how he knew who to turn to when his son had his not so little problem when he was eight.

And while it was great living in the Himalayan mountains for almost eight years learning meditation, fighting, defending your mind and a whole slew of cool things there was one major problem… there was no one his age. The town had kids but he was restricted from going out of the temple too often. If it wasn't for his dad moving into the temple he would not be half the man he was today.

Learning new languages and the other skills of his trade were not only fun, reading all those tomes taught him to think for himself. The books were filled with so many people's ideas they eventually clashed forcing him to come up with his own decisions and opinions.

That was half the reason he traveled immediately after finally leaving the temple. The trip allowed him to see the world outside of the temple helping him grow and to get rid of his cabin fever. It wasn't like he had anywhere to be.

His dad had made him do high school and some college through distance learning. It was part of the reason he even knew how to use a computer. Too bad he had to use a printer and mail his stuff since monk temples in the mountains don't have internet. Heck they didn't even have a phone. My dad used a bulky satellite phone so he could still get jobs.

Now that he was trained he had to help out the order the monks belong to from time to time. He himself wasn't a member but he owed them.

His next assignment was two fold. He was hired by a magical sect in Europe to verify the authenticity of a tome they wanted to buy. If it was genuine he would then complete any restoration the tome needed and then tell them the best way to store and preserve it. He was hoping he could convince them to pay him to translate it as well but that was unlikely.

He was also hired by the monks to get rid of a tome and artifact held by a different sect in the region.

He was worried about this job because it would be extremely dangerous. With his skills he had to find and destroy the tome and the artifact in question. It was a demons tome and foci. As long as they existed the demon could exert his influence through his followers.

His blades would not only destroy the physical manifestation but the magical connection as well. Severing the magical connection was the most important part of this mission.

Aeolus yawned and looked at his clock. It read one in the morning. He needed to get to sleep. He still had three days before he had to leave and he was opening the shop tomorrow.

Just as Aeolus was about to turn off his light and go to sleep his phone rang. Of course it did. Why would he think he would get any sleep?

He saw the caller ID as Titans Tower. He so wanted to let it go to voicemail but he sucked it up and answered.

"Hello." And in response he got silence.

"Beast Boy, if this is another crank call I am going to tell Starfire that you were the one that threw away her cooking supplies. Not only that, I will help her find new _interesting_ ingredients for her to make for you all." What could he say? It was one in the morning and he was preparing for a dangerous mission. That made him just a little irritable.

"It's Raven."

"Oh… what's up?" Well now he felt a little dumb.

"Would you come over to the tower tomorrow?"

"No." Not even Raven could make him go to that death trap.

"Please?"

"No." He would stay strong.

"For me?"

Resistance shattered.

"…Fine, but this had better be important."

"I will have Cyborg pick you up tomorrow. Good night."

"Night."

Man, tomorrow was going to suck, he just knew it.

XXX

Aeolus was nervous and jumping at every sound as he walked through the dreaded Titans Tower with Cyborg.

Cyborg looked at the freaking out Aeolus and shook his head. "Dude relax, the tower is completely secure. We learn from our mistakes and correct them so stop freaking out."

Aeolus tried and failed to relax. He needed something to take his mind off where he was. "So what did Raven need me for anyway?"

"Honestly I don't really know. But something is definitely wrong. Yesterday we were fighting this guy named Dr. Light who pissed Raven off in the middle of the fight and then Raven went ballistic on the guy."

"What do you mean by ballistic?" Aeolus was getting a bad feeling about this.

"Well her voice changed, her eyes glowed red and these black tentacle things came out and dragged Dr. Light into her blackened coat. I am telling you man, it was freaky. When we got him out he was all shivering and stuff." Cyborg involuntarily shivered at the memory.

"Huh, well that makes sense."

"What do you mean that makes sense? None of what I said makes sense!" Now Cyborg was the one to start freaking out.

"Actually it does. I have always thought that Raven's powers were tied to her mental state. It is probably the main reason why Raven is so into meditation. Dr. Light was probably just a trigger that pissed her off. Raven's powers are probably making her emotions turbulent. Raven knows I am heavy into meditation so she called me. But Raven must be extremely powerful for her emotions to be that volatile."

"So you can help?"

Aeolus shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know. But I am skilled enough to give it a try. So where is she?"

Cyborg stopped and thought about it. "Well Beast Boy made Raven mad right before I left to pick you up so she is probably in her room."

As Cyborg and Aeolus walked up to Raven's room they saw Beast Boy standing in front of Raven's door pacing. He seemed to build up his courage and then he just barely tapped her door. "Oh well, I guess she's not here." And he turned around to walk away when he came face to face with Cyborg and Aeolus.

"Come on dude really knock." Which Cyborg proceeded to do.

And then the door fell off.

"That does not reassure me on the safety of this place just so you know." Aeolus said with a sweat drop.

"It wasn't on purpose." Cyborg defended.

"I know. That makes it worse."

"Hey guys look at this place!" Yelled Beast Boy.

Cyborg and Aeolus realized that Beast Boy had walked into Raven's room while they were talking and was looking at Raven's stuff. Cyborg became stiff at the realization.

"Beast Boy what are you doing in Raven's room? No one ever goes into Raven's room."

"Chill out Cy, look at all this freaky stuff."

This got Cyborg to enter.

"Hey guys this is not a good idea, we have no idea what any of this stuff is. Raven is a sorceress so it is very likely she has some magical items here. They could be dangerous so don't touch anything."

And of course they were ignoring him. Beast Boy was playing with a mirror while Cyborg was looking at Ravens shelves. Aeolus went to grab Cyborg first when he felt something behind him. He turned around just in time for a black tentacle to grab him and drag him into the mirror that Beast Boy had been holding. He knew that coming to the tower was a bad idea.

XXX

The next thing Aeolus knew Beast Boy, Cyborg and himself were sprawled out on a floating rock surrounded by an angry red sky. It had dead trees and ravens with red eyes. And for some strange reason he felt like he should know where they were.

"I told you not to go onto Raven's room." Cyborg said.

"Well if she did not keep so many secrets I would not be so tempted." Beast Boy starting looking around. "So where are we anyway?"

Cyborg shrugged. "Maybe this is where Raven comes from."

"Sure is creepy enough."

Aeolus knew they were wrong. There was something about the feel of this place. Something about this place seemed familiar but it was definitely not the scenery.

Cyborg looked at his GPS on his arm with a confused look. "This can't be right. This says we are still in titans tower."

Beast Boy shrugged. "Maybe we should just walk."

Cyborg looked at him like he was being more of an idiot than usual. "And how are we supposed to do that?"

As soon as he said that other floating platforms connected to theirs to make a path. Something in Aeolus screamed at him for still not seeing it. They all started walking when Beast Boy noticed some little raven chicks on the side of the path.

Beast Boy immediately approached. "Oh look at these cute little guys."

"BB, those could be dangerous."

"Oh please, I am _Beast _Boy, I think I would know if these things were dangerous." The little birds proceeded to grow teeth and chase him. Then they grew into full grown ravens and began to chase him around to both Cyborg and Aeolus' enjoyment. Until Beast Boy started running towards them causing Cyborg to start running. Aeolus was about to join them when it _finally _clicked.

Aeolus turned to the ravens and took a firm stance while clearing his mind. He waited for the ravens to get right on top of him before he waived his hand and the ravens disappeared into a shower of black feathers.

"Achu!" those feathers made Aeolus sneeze.

Beast Boy was suddenly in front of Aeolus with his hands clasped in front of him and stars in his eyes. "Whoa, how did you do that?"

Aeolus slowly backed away from Beast Boy. "Uh, first of all you're creeping me out, and secondly I now know where we are. We are in Raven's outer mindscape. Simply put we are in Raven's mind. How the hell we are here physically… magic I guess."

"How could you possibly know that?" Asked Cyborg.

"I have been trained in the mental arts. And I have been mind walking before with the help of a psychic so I know what a mindscape feels like. Problem is that I have _no_ psychic powers so my ability to do, well anything here is rather limited. The thing I did with those ravens is close to the limit of what I can do in someone else's mind." Aeolus saw Beast Boy open his mouth to ask a question but Aeolus cut him off. "No, I have no idea how to get us out of here." Beast Boy opened his mouth again. "No I can not teach you. It takes years to learn and you need a psychic to help you for the more advanced stuff anyway. If you really want to learn ask Raven. She is both more skilled than me _and_ psychic."

"Well now what?" asked Beast Boy.

"Hey'a guys."

Everyone jumped and looked behind them to see a happy and smiling Raven in… pink. WTF.

"Oh thank god it's you Raven. Can you help us get out of here?" Asked Beast Boy.

Aeolus looked at 'Raven' more closely. "You're not outer Raven are you?"

She just turned and beamed at him. "Yep, I am Raven's happiness."

Cyborg felt a headache coming on. "Whatever, how do we get out of here?"

Raven just smiled. "Go through the portal of course."

"Oh ok, let's do that." Beast Boy turned around and walked away. Then he stopped and turned around sheepishly. "Where is this portal?"

Aeolus and Cyborg face faulted.

Pink Raven started giggling. "Beast Boy you are so silly. It is passed the forbidden door of course. But I would not recommend it because it's really dangerous right now."

Aeolus sighed. "Well we don't have a choice." Everyone turned to him. "Unless we get to the portal we are stuck here." He didn't want to tell them that something was wrong here. It wouldn't help their situation and he had no idea what exactly was wrong.

Happy Raven shrugged and held out her arms like and airplane and ran towards and archway while making plane sounds.

Aeolus turned to Beast Boy. "Just so you Know Beast Boy, when Raven finds out about this we are blaming you."

"What, why!?"

Aeolus gave him a deadpan look. "Who walked into Raven's room? Who was it that picked up the _magic_ mirror after I warned you about touching her stuff? Whose fault is it that we are in this mess?"

They approached the doorway and gulped. Whatever was beyond this doorway was defiantly not rainbows and giant floating candy. As they walked through the doorway they appeared into a pink valley with pink clouds in a yellow sky and giant floating strawberries.

Of course it was, because the universe just loved to screw with him.

"Now what?" Asked Beast Boy.

Happy Raven proceeded to grab Beast Boy and Cyborg and drag them along towards the next archway.

"Why are we in such a hurry? Let's stay awhile." Said Beast Boy in a dream like voice.

"Yeah, BB is right, we should just stay here and be happy." Replied Cyborg with a far off look in his eyes.

Aeolus said nothing while following them. He was having enough trouble as it was. It was taking all of his concentration to fend off the defenses of this layer of Raven's mental defense. This defense made people want to stop going further and made them happy. It was the equivalent of a mental drugging. He had dealt with this once before with the monk who trained him in the mental arts. She used it as an active attack so he would recognize when someone tried it on him and how to defend against it but Raven had somehow made it an automatic defense. He didn't even know that was possible.

Happy Raven led them to the portal while laughing at Beast Boy's bad jokes. She turned to him with a smile. "Don't worry Aeolus, just because you aren't funny like BB here doesn't mean I don't like you too."

Aeolus eye twitched. He was funny damn it. Why did no one like his jokes or even knew he had made a joke half the time? The thought made Aeolus even more depressed. And since he was fending off the psychic equivalent of a happy ray at the time that was saying something.

As they walked through the portal they saw what appeared to be a giant gray stone maze.

Finally thought Aeolus. Finally Raven had a normal mental defense. He had a maze as one of his defenses as well.

Beast Boy and Cyborg looked at Aeolus in confusion having just come out of their happy trance. "What happened back there?"

Aeolus gave them a flat look in return. "Very simply put, mental drugging. Each layer of Raven's mind will have mental defenses. That one gave you feelings of contentment so you would not _want_ to travel further. That's why pink Raven dragged you two through her realm so quickly."

Beast Boy, Cyborg and Aeolus looked around and saw another Raven standing at the entrance of the maze wearing gray and slumped shoulders looking glum.

She looked at them and got even more glum if that was possible. "I'm sorry. I am sorry you are stuck here, I am sorry you were dragged in here, I am sorry that the way out was moved to somewhere else."

Cyborg and Beast Boy looked at Aeolus for guidance.

Aeolus shrugged. "Another aspect of Raven's true self I guess. Maybe she can help us get through the maze." He turned towards gray Raven and smiled. "Hello grey Raven. If you are so sorry about our predicament could you guide us through your mental maze?" Please let her say yes. He was mostly trained to defend himself since he lacked psychic abilities. He seriously doubted he was skilled enough to guide them through the maze safely.

Aeolus also couldn't use his chains here for fear of hurting Raven's mind. He was stuck with just his mental and physical training until they got out.

"Sure I can, I am sorry though. It will take a while."

Aeolus had a thought suddenly occur to him. "Gray Raven, how fast does time outside move compared to time in here since we used the mirror?" Usually things in a mental scape happened many times faster than outside but they were here physically with the help of a magical artifact so who knew what the time dilation was now.

"I am sorry, but since you are here physically there is no time difference between here and the outside world so we should hurry." With that she turned and walked into the maze.

Aeolus turned to his traveling companions and gestured to the maze. "Come on guys, we should stick close to our guide." Aeolus affixed them with a serious look. "And don't let your guard down. This maze is probably very dangerous even with our guides help."

XXX

_(Half an Hour Later)_

Aeolus, Cyborg and Beast Boy were walking through the maze still closely following the now identified timid Raven while covered in scratches, bruises and some burns.

It was only thanks to gray Raven and Aeolus that Cyborg and Beast Boy had gotten this far. They had run afoul a few of the mazes traps but had gotten out mostly unharmed thanks to gray Raven's navigation and Aeolus's warnings.

They turned another corner and saw the exit.

Gray Raven turned to them. "I have turned off all the traps from here to the exit. Sorry I could not turn them all off and that it took so long."

Aeolus grabbed Raven by the shoulders and looked her strait in the eye. "You have nothing to be sorry for where I am concerned. Thank you for guiding us safely through the maze. We could not have done it without your help." He then gave her a smile. "I expected nothing else from my best friend."

Gray Raven said nothing and her face didn't change but she stood just a hair straighter after that.

The three of them walked through the portal and came face to face with a giant hooded statue with four slitted eyes four arms and swords in each hand.

The slitted eyes suddenly glowed red and it spun one eighty showing it had heads on both sides. Aeolus could feel the ill intent coming off the construct in waves and reacted.

"Guys, split up and attack!"

Cyborg and Beast Boy immediately tried to flank the statue while Aeolus rushed the statue directly. Cyborg and Beast Boy had recognized Aeolus as the default leader while in Raven's mind.

Beast Boy turned into a T Rex and grabbed one of the swords in his jaws while Cyborg blasted him.

Aeolus focused and created a katana from nothing. He had enough skills to make small things like this in Raven's mind if he concentrated. He jumped thirty feet into the air and cut the statue from head to toe causing it fall over.

The sword in Aeolus's hand shattered and disappeared while he fell to his knees while holding his head in both pain and fatigue. That sword was a physical manifestation of his will and he pitted it against the construct in order to damage it and it took a lot out of him. He had used Cyborg and Beast Boy as distractions because if he split its focus it would be easier to hurt since he was in a mental world. This place was pushing him to the limits of his abilities and beyond. It appeared that being here physically gave him more control than he usually would have in someone else's mind.

"Ahh man, there goes my chance for an awesome entrance."

They turned around and got an eyeful of a Raven in green this time. "But awesome anyway. High fives! C'mon!"

Aeolus didn't hesitate and gave her a double high five.

She gave him a big smile. "I didn't know you could fight. You and me should go a few rounds." She held up her fist and took a boxers stance.

Aeolus smirked and his eyes twinkled in excitement. "I would normally take you up on your offer but I need to save my strength and you have the home advantage here."

She stared at him for a minute then broke her stance and through an arm around his shoulder. "Oh well. But next time I won't let you off so easily. Nice manifestation of will by the way."

Aeolus smiled. "Thanks. Being here physically helped give me the extra oomph I needed. This place is great for training. After I am done here I might break into the next level." He had been able to form constructs of will before in other people's mindscapes. But even with Beast Boy's and Cyborg's distractions and the boost he got from being here physically, he would have never have been able to take out that statue in one hit before. He was definitely improving while he was here.

Beast Boy interrupted his thoughts. "Hey, what's a manifestation of will?"

"It is basically just like it sounds. I don't have psychic powers so what I can do here is limited. In someone's mind, psychic powers are not the only factor. There is also the strength of one's mind. I put all my focus and intent and create a blade that I can use to impose my will. For example, cut a really big statue. It's a byproduct of my training like the fact I can jump thirty feet into the air here."

"So can you do the same thing in your own mind?"

"No Beast Boy, I can do a hell of a lot more. In my own mind I reign supreme. Defending is much easier than attacking and in my mind me not having psychic powers is not an issue. You have to almost completely outclass someone to break a well trained mind. If these aspects of Raven weren't helping us I doubt we could have gotten this far. In fact I know we couldn't have. Just be glad Raven views us as friends and is willing to help us out or we would have been screwed."

"Enough with the chit chat, let's go already." Complained green Raven.

They all entered the green Raven's domain. It appeared to be a creepy forest with a winding dirt path.

"Mind telling us what defenses to expect in here?" Asked Aeolus

Green Raven shrugged. "Nothing much. There are dangerous animals and plants here as well as the oppressive atmosphere. But I am the most dangerous thing in this forest." Raven puffed out her chest in pride.

Aeolus tried not to stare.

Cyborg scoffed "Brag much?"

"Want to go at it, tin man?"

They got in each other's faces, literally. They were actually butting heads and Aeolus could swear he saw actual sparks fly between their eyes.

Green Raven then kicked Cyborg in the nuts and then hopped around on her wounded leg.

"Boo'ya! Don't you know athletes always wear a cup?"

Beast boy was laughing so hard he was doubled over.

Green Raven charged up her hands with a red face until Aeolus grabbed them. She tried to throw him in response but Aeolus swept her legs and mounted her. He wasn't a grappling expert but he could pin someone down.

"Are we done now?"

Raven continued to struggle but her heart didn't seem to be in it. Like she was afraid to hurt him. Truthfully unless he was willing to pull out his chains he probably couldn't stop her.

She looked him in the eye for a minute as though searching for something. She must have found it because she eventually relented and averted her gaze. "Fine. Will you get off me?"

Aeolus got off of her and put his hand out to help her but she got up on her own.

"Well ladies? Let's get a move on already." With that she walked into the creepy forest.

As they walked through the forest they heard the sounds of animals and Aeolus could swear the trees were moving. Considering where he was it was more likely than not.

Suddenly Raven stopped and tensed.

Aeolus went on high alert at that. What the hell would cause her to be tense like that in her own domain? What was really happening in Raven's mind and why did he get the feeling that he would not like the answer?

Aeolus's ears eventually heard growling like a dogs only deeper… oh shit, wolves. And by the sound of the footsteps and the growls, a hell of a lot bigger than the Himalayan wolves he was used to. By the sounds there were at least four but no more than six and they were coming from both sides of the trail.

"Everyone, back to back. We have wolves coming from both sides of the trails." They did it except for green Raven who was shaking in anger.

"How dare she turn my wolves against me?" Raven started cracking her knuckles.

Aeolus wondered who 'she' was.

The wolves got close enough for Aeolus to just make out and they creped him out for some reason. They all had four glowing red eyes just like the statue from before. These wolves were definitely a part of Raven's mind but he saw just the tiniest amount of something or someone else mixed in. Whatever it was felt wrong and evil.

"Um guys? When these wolves get here give them everything you got because they are defiantly not friendly."

"What if I turned into a wolf and talked to them?" asked Beast Boy hopefully.

Aeolus shook his head. "Won't work, since these are not real wolves. Something's controlling them and has sent them to attack."

The wolves came out of the shadows and everyone could see them clearly. There were three gray wolves on each side with four glowing red eyes and stood a massive four feet tall. They could clearly see their muscles tense under their coats as they crouched with a look of intelligence people don't associate with wolves or any other animal for that matter.

Green Raven decided to take charge. "I will take care of the ones on the left while you three take the ones on the right."

The wolves decided to charge them all at once.

Raven grabbed the two outside ones by the throat as they charged and lifted them like they were mere pups and kicked the middle one with a front kick that sent it into and through a three foot thick tree. She then spun in a circle still gripping the other two wolves.

The wolf she kicked got shakily to its feet and probably would have charged again if Raven hadn't thrown the two wolves she was spinning like a bullet right into the first wolf in rapid fire crating a dust cloud on impact.

As the dust cleared the last remaining conscious wolf looked up at the sound of a holler as green Raven came down from the sky with a massive punch and stuck all three wolves casing them to be destroyed and creating fissures spreading five feet from the point of impact in every direction.

The others were having a harder time.

Cyborg immediately blasted his wolf but it was slowly walking through the blast. So Cyborg waited till it got close and then double hammer fisted it into the ground. He then charged up an over powered blast and shot it at the downed wolf causing it to disappear. "Boo'ya, I just took you to the pound!"

Cyborg heard his arm alarm go off and looked at it to see that it had overheated and was now on a fifteen minute safety cool down. He could fire it anyway if he bypassed the safety but if he did he would fry the circuits until he could go back to his room in the tower to fix it.

Beast Boy had transformed into a saber tooth tiger and was circling with his wolf as they both were waiting for the moment to strike.

The wolf made the first move and lunged at Beast Boy's flank but Beast Boy dodged and swiped across the wolfs eyes. The pissed of wolf lunged again and they rolled around until Beast Boy's superior size and weight caused him to end up on top. Beast Boy knew this was his chance but he hesitated go in for the throat even if the wolf wasn't really alive and the wolf shook him off when Beast Boy froze.

They charged each other and tried to get up on their hind legs and claw each other. Beast Boy got higher but that left his chest open and the wolf got a shallow slash there. This caused Beast boy to flinch and all back onto his four feet. But as he was falling his fang accidentally pierced the eye of the wolf causing it to howl out in pain.

Beast Boy felt bad until he saw that the wolf wasn't bleeding and he finally understood what Aeolus meant by they weren't real and charged the wolf and slamming it into a tree. The wolf passed out and disappeared.

Beast Boy turned back into his regular form and inspected the cut on his chest. He was lucky that it was so shallow that it wasn't even bleeding anymore. That would teach him not to hesitate in here.

Aeolus was having the toughest time because he couldn't use his abilities. The wolf charged him and he dodged by rolling out of the way and turned to face the wolf only to get a face full of teeth. So Aeolus did a hasty back roll to get below and away from the snapping jaws.

Aeolus was even hesitant to create a weapon of intent since he could not split his focus right now to make one and he was getting tired. Fighting off pinks happy ray, saving the others in the maze a couple of times and taking out that giant statue had taken a huge toll on him. He wasn't even sure how much further they had to go so he could not afford to make a weapon even if the wolf gave him the breathing room he needed to do it.

The wolf charged Aeolus and he stood his ground. When the wolf got close and lunged Aeolus side stepped hoping to flank and jump on the wolfs back but the wolf turned his head and snapped at Aeolus ruining that plan.

Aeolus realized that the wolf was learning and had anticipated his second dodge. He had to finish this quick or he would lose.

The wolf charged him again and Aeolus brought both his palms down as hard as he could on the wolfs snout and drove its head into the ground with his palms. Aeolus then immediately elbow dropped the wolf right between the eyes causing it to disappear.

Aeolus stayed sprawled out on the ground with a light sheen of sweat on him while muscles shook in mini spasms. Amplifying his physical abilities enough to take out that wolf quickly had been more draining than he had expected. He was even starting to see spots dance across his vision.

This was defiantly not good. He was running on fumes at this point. He needed to rest for a minute but seriously doubted he would have that luxury. Using mental abilities was extremely draining for him.

He missed the real world where he could use his chains and fight for more than a minute without collapsing. But on the other hand, thanks to his mental abilities he could defeat a giant super wolf with an elbow to the face.

Cyborg walked up to Aeolus with his arm still blinking. "Hey dude, are you ok?"

Before Aeolus could try to answer him Raven collected them all after and pushed them to a light jog through her forest.

Aeolus would have had no problem with it if he wasn't so exhausted and he started lagging much too green Raven's annoyance.

"Hey, slowpoke! We don't have time for this."

Beast Boy came to Aeolus's defense. "Calm down Raven, he is just an ordinary teenager. He is not in as good shape as the rest of us."

Green Raven just rolled her eyes.

Aeolus opened his mouth to correct Beast Boy and tell him he was in awesome shape but stopped. If they thought he was an out of shape teenager that would put the idea that he could be a super hero in the absurd column of their brains if his identity was in danger.

Green Raven looked about as though she expected another ambush. "We don't have time for this. The portal to the next place is less than a quarter of a mile ahead."

Aeolus stood up strait. This was no time to be worrying about perceptions. They were in danger and he had no idea of how or why. "I'm fine." He really wasn't.

He was never trained to be in someone's mind for any length of time. He was flexing muscles he had never really used all that much so to speak.

Green Raven stared at him again with this piercing look and then sighed.

"Whatever, lets go."

When they made it to the portal they didn't hesitate to go through.

They found themselves in a library. Aeolus had a place like this in his mind too. This was where Raven's thoughts and memories were stored. He never expected that they would have to go this deep.

People trained in the mind arts all learned the same basic layout. First is the outer layer that confuses people and gets psychics to stop going further. In his mind it was a thick fog full of recurring false thoughts that made people who did cursory glances into his mind think that they were actually reading his mind and that he had no defenses. The second layer was some defense like a maze. Some people were skilled enough to have multiple layers. He had a wall you had to break before his maze and raven had a forest afterwards.

Once you got past all that you got to peoples thoughts and memories that the mind organized in some way. This was one of the major advantages of learning the mind arts because people who did this had better memory and could learn things quicker. It was a part of the reason he was able to learn as many languages as he did so quickly. There were layers beyond this but he hoped they would not have to go that far.

"Hello."

Everyone jumped and turned around to see a Raven in yellow this time. But this Raven had the added accessory of glasses. You would think they would have gotten used to that by now.

Yellow Raven just stared blankly at them. "Welcome to the library, please don't touch anything." With that she turned around and walked away. Aeolus was really missing interacting with the real Raven.

Beast Boy looked around and said. "At least nothing can go wrong in a library."

Cyborg proceeded to smack Beast boy upside the head. "You idiot, way to jinx us."

Aeolus turned to Beast Boy. "We are all exhausted and we have no idea how much further we have to go. I have a feeling things are going to get much more difficult from here on out."

Aeolus didn't have the heart to tell them that something was wrong. They should have faced zero obstacles if these aspects of Raven were freely guiding them, but for some reason it seemed as though they did not have one hundred percent control of their realms right now. And that meant something was very wrong. He just wished that he had some idea of what.

* * *

**And done. Sorry it took me so long to update. A combination of life and laziness made this one take a while. As you can see this will be a two part mini Arc. **

**For those of you that are wondering what happened to Fixit, don't get your circuits crossed. It will be revealed when the times right unless you caught my hints and have already figured it out.**

**Vote on my poll on my profile for my third story. I will probably keep three to four stories going on simultaneously in the end. I find I write more when I have more stories to choose from. I wrote this after writing chapter 2 of Naruto Seal Master.**

**And last but not least, for the fastest updates please leave me plenty of follows, reviews and favorites on your way out. **


	6. Raven's Mind Part 2

**For those of you that have been PMing me about Aeolus' abilities last chapter I am here to clarify. All those skills he has been using inside of Raven's mindscape are part of his **_**mental**_** training and are not his powers. Anyone could do those things with the right training. Secondly he can't use his chains since doing so might harm her mind due to their ability to cut off and suppress things. And finally for those who don't get it, Aeolus is getting weak because he is using his mind to do things and it is both draining and puts him under a lot of stress.**

**As always, if you want faster updates favorite, follow and review. If you have already done that encourage others to do so by spreading the word about my stories. Because the more people I know are waiting to read the next chapter the sooner I get around to typing and posting it because most of it is already sitting in my head collecting dust.**

**Disclaimer: In case you are wondering I do not own the Teen Titans. But you can rejoice in the fact that I do own Aeolus and all related ideas.**

* * *

Aeolus was on his last legs and he knew it. If only he could use his powers instead of his mental training he might be better off, but the risk of his powers hurting Raven's mind on a permanent basis was almost guaranteed if did. But could he afford not to? If he pushed himself too far he could slip into a comma or wind up in the vegetable isle. The difference between someone trained and someone who had psychic abilities was great.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were looking at Aeolus in concern. He looked dead on his feet like he hadn't slept in days. Cyborg stopped and grabbed Aeolus' shoulders. "Hey man what is wrong? We can stop if you like."

Aeolus looked Cyborg in the eye. He so wanted to stop but the resistance they were encountering was getting greater the farther they went and they couldn't risk letting him rest for hours to recover his strength in case things got worse. "No, we need to continue. As I told you before I was never trained to be offensive mentally. I lack the capacity to be so."

Beast Boy didn't get it. "I get that all the stuff your doing is a mind over matter thing since we are in a mind, but what does that have to do with looking like you haven't slept for a week?" Aeolus looked slightly pale and his eyes were a little unfocused. Like he was struggling to just stay conscious.

Aeolus sighed. "It is like the strain someone feels after taking a long test. Now just imagine that it was a twenty four hour test and there were no breaks. Without psychic powers to boost my offensive abilities everything I do puts a huge strain on me. Normally this fact doesn't matter since without psychic abilities I can't go attack someone's mind in the first place. But when I am _dragged _in it becomes a huge issue. Even though we are here physically, without powers like you and Cyborg I don't have the means to defend myself in someone else's mind for long periods of time." At least none he could risk using. "Think of it this way, those without psychic can build nice castles with walls and moats to defend themselves but lack the solders to attack someone else. That is why psychics will try to pull trained people without psychic powers outside of their mind to neutral territory or even worse their own mind where they are near powerless. Guess where we are?"

"Oh." Beast Boy was embarrassed.

Yellow Raven turned around to look at the halted group. "If you are all done we should really get moving."

Beast Boy turned to look at Raven angrily. "Don't you know any compassion? Aren't you worried about him?"

Before Yellow Raven could respond Aeolus answered for her. "Beast Boy, this is Raven's _Librarian_. She is probably a representation of logic and knowledge." Aeolus looked at Raven. "Right?"

She nodded. "He is correct. If you must talk could you at least walk while doing so?"

They started to walk but Cyborg had one more question. "Aeolus, why did you say librarian like it was a tittle?"

Aeolus looked dumbly at Cyborg for a minute before he remembered they were utter novices and didn't even know the most basic terms. It was like asking a carpenter what a hammer was. "This part of the mind is one of the main reasons a non psychic would bother to learn the mental arts. This place is the location that represents all of your knowledge. By making one of these you can organize your thoughts so you learn quicker, memorize things better and are far less likely to forget things. This place is the key to me learning so many languages so quickly. The Librarian is the construct that organizes your mind. It is automatic but meditating improves the process."

Beast Boy thought that was awesome. He could memorize all the combos to all the fighting games. Memorize every strategy guide and walkthrough. He would rule the games. First the Titans living room, then the arcades and finally the world would bow to his gaming awesomeness! "Are you sure you can't teach me?"

"I told you, you need a psychic to help you get past the basic level. Asking Raven would be your best option. It will take years of daily training for hours at a time." He would have asked Raven himself but letting someone trained you meant allowing them into your mind. He had things he defiantly wanted to keep secret. And it wasn't just the hero thing.

"Ah, never mind." Ruling the gaming world would be great, but sometimes the price was too high.

At least they were in a library. Usually the nature of the place made the traps be reactionary so as long as they didn't touch anything they should be safe and Aeolus could rest his mind for a bit. But just to be safe. "Beast Boy." He made sure Beast Boy was looking at him before continuing. "Don't touch _anything_. And this time listen to me. Not a book, not a sheet of paper, not a pen, not a _mirror_, not even a pebble on the floor here. In fact, if you see an interesting patch of _floor_, step around it." He didn't have the strength to deal with something right now.

The rest of their trip was uneventful thankfully. Aeolus had caught his second wind but he was still exhausted.

Beast Boy was bored and trying to have a conversation with Yellow Raven. Emphasis on trying. Beast Boy turned to Aeolus "Is there a way we could make her less Vulcan like?"

"What's a Vulcan?"

Beast Boy was so surprised he tripped over his own feet and face planted on the black marble floor. "Haven't you ever watched Star Trek?" It couldn't be.

"No, should I have?" Was this one of those cultural things he had missed?

It was. "Everyone at least knows of Star Trek. It's a famous TV show. It is the ultimate symbol of geek Dom."

Oh, TV again. "Beast Boy, you been to my house right?"

Beast Boy nodded his head. He had no idea what his house had to do with Star Trek.

"Then you should have noticed we don't even have a TV. And before you start, I don't even want one."

Beast Boy was speechless.

"Is Beast Boy speechless?" They turned to see a blue Raven standing next to the yellow one.

Cyborg answered as he waved his hand in front of Beast Boy to no effect. "I think the no TV thing broke him."

Raven smirked. "Aeolus, I think you are my favorite person right now."

Aeolus smiled at this Raven and saw that this one had a chakra signature. Wait, that meant that she was the real Raven. Only flesh and blood things had chakra, spirits and everything in this mindscape only had an aura which represents the spirit or nonphysical. "Raven, please tell us that you can get us out of here."

"Hey why are you asking this Raven that?" asked Cyborg. He hadn't asked any of the others since the first Raven they encountered.

"Because this one is the real Raven. Our Raven."

"What are you guys doing here?" That's right she was furious at them. The whole silent Beast Boy had distracted her.

Aeolus explained the events that led to them coming here and even gave her a rundown of what had happened since they had gotten here. He left out how exhausted and strained he was.

Raven absorbed what Aeolus had told her. "So the gist of it is that you were pulled in here against your will and it's all Beast Boy's fault."

Aeolus thought about Raven's response. "Yes. That sums it up rather nicely."

"Hey, it wasn't all my fault!"

Raven looked back to Aeolus. "Can you break him again?"

Aeolus shrugged. "I think it's one of those eclipse things."

"I'm right here!"

Aeolus ignored Beast Boy's remark. "What's the plan for getting us out of here?"

Real Raven looked at Yellow Raven who gave her a nod. "We are lucky that you have been causing so much trouble. We are going to make a run for the portal."

Aeolus thought about it. It wasn't really a plan per se but he was too drained to be helpful and Beast Boy and Cyborg had no clue what to do here. When he thought of it that way, it was a great plan.

The four of them ran through yellows portal and ended up in an area that looked a hell of a lot like the entrance to Raven's mind except the land was normal. If one realm was being represented in all of them they needed to leave while they could.

They continued running and then they finally saw what must have been the portal in the distance. It looked like all the other archways except this archway was filled with a white swirling light. As they got within a quarter mile of it red bolts of energy rained down on them forcing them to take cover behind and outcrop.

"What the hell is that?!" yelled Cyborg over the noise.

The term be careful what you wish for is apparently true because a red blast larger than all the rest came down less than twenty feet from them. The hairs on the back of Aeolus' head stood up as the blast sent up a large cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared there stood a Red Raven in the shallow crater that the blast had caused with her head bowed. When she raised her head so that they could see in the hood they saw four glowing red eyes that exuded rage and hate.

But that was not what caused Aeolus to be afraid. No, it was her aura. There was another aura mixed in that had him shaking slightly. It felt dark and wrong with a touch of fire. How does an aura remind him of both darkness and fire? All he knew was that there was something unique about this aura that he had never encountered before.

"**Hatred shall rule!"** She was then surrounded by red and black energy like a tornado and when it dissipated a giant male creature was in her place. It was red with black markings had long white hair with pointed ears and the same shaped eyes as Red Raven except they glowed yellow now instead of red. She, he, it was wearing a speedo with a belt like Raven's with an additional rag over the man bits and had silver arm bands.

"What the hell?!" screamed Beast Boy.

"I have father issues."

"You don't say. So how do we take this thing down?" replied Cyborg.

"We don't. I am not strong enough now to defeat it. We need to get you out of my mind."

"What if all of your other Raven's ganged up on him too?"

Everyone looked at Beast Boy shock. That was a good idea. No scratch that, it was an excellent idea.

"I would need you to distract Rage while I prepare. Can I count on you?"

Beast Boy and Cyborg smiled at Raven.

Cyborg turned his cooled arm back into his cannon. "Did you even have to ask?"

Cyborg and Beast Boy leaped over the bluff they were using as cover while Raven sat in a meditative position to prepare for her counter assault.

Aeolus wasn't sure what to do. He was still extremely weak and while they could probably use his help if he went out there the stress may cause him to slip into a comma. Of course it could destroy his mind utterly and he would get firsthand experience as what it would be like to live as broccoli. The real question was could they pull this off without him?

Aeolus peeked over the bluff and saw that they were losing badly. Damn it, there goes his hopes of retirement. Aeolus leaped out from behind the bluff and charged Rage focusing everything he had into one last construct. He still wouldn't risk using his powers in here. He focused on the image of the only sword he had ever wielded. It was a standard katana with a sakura hamon and had a plain guard with traditional black wrapping with no ornamentation. He focused on the feel and weight, the way the light shined off it, the texture of the grip in his hand and every other minute detail about it. It formed in his hand just like the real one that was now hanging in his room.

Aeolus got down as Rage finished throwing green T-rex into Cyborg. Yep he was going to die. He jumped high into a lunge and aimed strait for Rages heart as it turned around to face him. His timing was perfect. But apparently so was Rages as a hand came up over its heart. He pierced through it like a knife through butter all the way to the hilt. But it didn't matter since he had missed his mark.

Rage screamed in both pain and outrage and flung him off. He put everything he had into that strike. But as he fell he smirked at the fact that his blade had hurt so much before the darkness overcame his vision and he lost consciousness.

XXX

Aeolus slowly regained consciousness but was confused as to why. He should be dead or a vegetable. As he slowly opened his eyes he looked around to see that he was laying on a bed staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. He tried to move but his body was stiff and sore. That must mean he wasn't out for that long.

Aeolus felt like he was suddenly in danger and turned his head to an angry Raven flanked by the rest of the Titans.

Cyborg was the first to break the silence. "Thanks for the save man. That sword thing you did really hurt it for some reason and distracted it long enough for Raven to do her thing."

"Yeah we owe you one. But you should have seen it. A bunch of different Ravens came out and combined into this one super tall white Raven and blasted him. Then he turned back into little red Raven and combined with the white one then it disappeared and regular old Raven was standing there." Beast Boy gave him a thumbs up.

Starfire hovered in the background. "Yes we were regaled with the story of your travels while we waited for you to regain consciousness." Starfire looked at the still and silent Raven. "Friend Raven why do you not greet your friend? You were most distraught when you returned."

Raven looked at Aeolus with fire in her eyes but they seemed a little glassy too. "All of you get out."

The Titans were shocked at the venom in Raven's tone and turned to leave.

"Aeolus that means you too."

The Titans turned around in shock and were about to say something when Aeolus held up his hand to stop them.

"It's all right." Aeolus got up slowly. He felt weak and tired enough to sleep for a week. His muscles were in knots and every movement was stiff and painful. Aeolus looked to Raven to see she had her head turned away from him.

"Raven." She didn't respond. Aeolus sighed. "Just so you know, if I could do it all over again I wouldn't change a thing."

Raven flinched but still said nothing. As Aeolus brushed past her Raven grabbed the hem of his shirt to stop him from leaving.

Aeolus stopped and waited patiently for Raven to say or do something.

"Thank you."

Aeolus smiled. "What are best friends for?" Aeolus brought his hand and held the one that was gripping his shirt. He held it there for a moment before he gave it a reassuring squeeze and then let go as did Raven's grip on his shirt.

Aeolus left without a word or a backwards glance.

XXX

It was night and Aeolus was in Fixit's shop under the city after he had been texted. Apparently a text was like a short email. Fixit had immediately taken his pone connected it to another similar looking one then proceeded to dismantle his for parts.

"What the hell man? What did my phone ever do to you?" It had done plenty to him but to his knowledge it had never done anything to Fixit. Sure he hated the confusing thing for being so hard to understand but it was useful for what he had figured out what to do with it.

Fixit simply threw the new phone at Aeolus who caught it. "This one is better. Unlimited everything, works almost anywhere, nearly indestructible, and best of all it can't be tracked."

"Oh, cool." So it was kind of like a satellite phone without the air time cost. And now people couldn't track him through his phone. "Like a T communicator with web and stuff."

Fixit nodded. "Exactly. Since I can not help you directly this is what I can do for you."

Aeolus had approached Fixit to be his partner after the incident involving Cyborg three weeks ago. Fixit had agreed but there were some complications. Fixit needed to be near his lab to live since so much of him was machine and the lab helped with some of his basic functions. So Fixit was remote support which was fine with Aeolus. Fixit had made flying drones that had tapped into every major network in the city including the police. Fixit even said he was going to help him in other ways too but Fixit had one rule. No offensive attack robots, ever. Aeolus had worn Fixit down so that Fixit agreed to make defensive drones like before to protect himself.

"So is the phone the only reason you called me? Because if so, I do need to pack and get ready." Not to mention he had some studying to do.

"When you came in you said you had changed your mind on using high tech gear correct?"

Aeolus nodded his head. Aeolus had originally been against using high tech gear. He had figured his skill, powers, and low tech stuff would be plenty, but he was wrong. He was lucky not to have died today in Raven's mind when the option of using his powers hadn't been an option. He needed something else up his sleeve other than magical chains. His bloated sense of self confidence would get him killed if he didn't learn from his mistakes the first time around. "Yes, why?"

"Well I anticipated you wising up eventually so I took the liberty of not wasting time." Fixit moved behind the new super computer he had built to get something.

Speaking of super computers, Aeolus still thought it looked like a giant rectangle. It was a five by five base and was eight feet tall. It had no screens or a keyboard since Fixit interfaced with it directly and Aeolus probably couldn't even turn something like this on if he were asked.

Fixit came back with a large plain black suitcase just small enough to be a carry on and set it down in front of him. Aeolus looked on with a sliver of excitement as Fixit unzipped the suitcase and opened it up to reveal, nothing. Huh, the case was empty? "Isn't there supposed to be something inside?"

"Since you are going on that mission soon I thought I should show you this first. Put your index finger here." Fixit pointed to one corner of the flat bottom that had a small glass like sheen the size of one joint of Aeolus' finger.

Aeolus shrugged and did as he was told and heard a hum for a few seconds then a soft click causing the bottom to unhinge. Now he got it, the luggage had a false bottom.

"The first time takes longer since it had to record your DNA so now it can't be opened by anyone other than you. It is a nearly impenetrable case built in to the suitcase that can not be picked up on X ray so you can get it and whatever you place inside it passed airport security. It even fools metal detectors." Fixit opened the false bottom and showed him what was inside. There was a lot of empty space inside since there was only a belt like Robin's except it was silver, a small piece of black cloth and goggles exactly like his other ones except the frame was black and it had a thick strap for some reason.

"Your new gear. These goggles are computers with pop up screens and a multitude of features including a two way encrypted radio. The belt holds all your gear plus some new extras I added. And this cloth is a new microfiber face mask for easy breathing and a built in voice changer so you can now talk without anyone like the Titans recognizing your voice."

Aeolus was floored by the help. This partnership was going better than he ever dared to hope. Fixit was more than his partner, he was his friend. They had grown close over the past three weeks and there were no secrets between them. Fixit was the only person he had ever told his major secret to. Others knew out of necessity but Fixit was the only person who didn't need to know that did.

XXX

Back in Titans Tower everyone was still pestering Raven for her attitude towards Aeolus. Well, except for Robin who was still suspicious of him for having secrets in his past.

Raven didn't want to talk about it but she had enough. Anything to get them to shut up. "Aeolus was dumb. He knew what attacking Rage in that state meant for him and he did it anyway."

Beast Boy didn't get what the big deal was. "So he passed out. It all turned out ok."

Raven glared at Beast Boy. "It's not ok. Pushing yourself that far is deadly and he knew it. He was lucky that his mind wasn't destroyed. He made that attack knowing he would most likely die even if he succeeded." Raven felt her temper rising and went to meditate.

Cyborg broke the silence. "I heard him mumble 'vegetable' once in that library place but, wow. I don't care what anyone says that guys a hero in my book."

The other two just nodded. Too bad he wasn't trained nor had powers or else they would have made him a member just like that.

If only they knew.

XXX

Aeolus was on his plane waiting to take off with his suit and gear safely stored over his head in his suitcases secret compartment.

Aeolus leaned back in his first class seat and relaxed. Aeolus and his father were wealthy and it was a sixteen hour flight so of course he sprang for first class. It was probably best for him to relax for as long as he could because he probably wouldn't have the chance after he landed until the job was finished. Both of them.

* * *

**And that is where I will cut off for now. Aeolus is slowly morphing into a hero in his own right but he still has a long way to go. And we get to see Aeolus in a mini arc where I **_**may**_** take the opportunity to tell you all is secret or not. I really haven't decided yet. I will have to wait and see how the chapter goes.**

**As always for faster updates please favorite, follow and review. If you have already done so encourage others by spreading the word of my stories. It will start dictating which stories I update and in which order as well as speed.**

**Also with this chapter I have finally reached a story with 20,000 words. Yay me.**

**And finally check out my pole before it closes and vote.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I know this story isn't nearly as popular as my other stories because this story was my first attempt at fanfiction and the first chapters were not real attention grabbers. Also this is has an OC main character which is by default unpopular unless you are already an established writer and finally I am late coming on an old topic that doesn't get much traffic so my story is lost among the thousands of others. But to those of you that read and like this story thank you. This is not one of those author notes where the story is cancelled or goes on hiatus. Besides, **_**I**_** like this story, so I will not stop writing it.**

**We are finally at the main characters first original arc. This arc is very important as you will learn some very important things about Aeolus in the coming chapters before he jumps back to Jump City. **

**Disclaimer: I do not or have ever owned Teen Titans. But I have and will always own Aeolus unless some rich company wants to buy the rights.**

Aeolus stepped off the plane and stretched after his sixteen hour flight. He had thankfully sprung for the first class seats so he could get some elbow room. He may not have been rich with a capital B but he was rich.

Most of their money went back into the business but his dad and he spent a little extra on things like plane tickets and hotels. He made his way to the turnstile to claim his bag and saw a valet with a white sign that had his name on it. Spelled wrong of course.

"Sir, may I take your bag?" the valet put his hand out to receive Aeolus' bag but he shook his head.

"I will carry the carryon bag." His supplies were custom made for him. It would cost a lot of money and time to replace the things in his bag. Also, there was the fact he had his costume in his carryon.

They drove to the hotel without incident and he checked into his room. His room was in a standard room with a king bed but he didn't plan to be in the hotel much so it really didn't matter as long as the bed was comfortable. Heck, considering what he had called a bed for years, the fact that it was a real mattress was a luxury.

He used one of Fixit's gadgets to sweep the room for electronic bugs and his eyes didn't see any magical ones.

He took out his work cell phone and called his employer to let him know that he had landed and that they could pick him up tomorrow after he had breakfast. After that he went out into town and looked around.

He was leisurely walking the streets of Berlin and taking in the sights. What was the point of traveling to other countries for work if you never saw them? He even made plans to take some tours after he completed both his jobs. He had his diploma and nowhere urgent to be afterward anyway. Besides it felt like making plans right before a potentially deadly mission was extra motivation to not, well die. Oh, and to not be horribly maimed. One could never forget about the horrible maiming.

He had a light dinner and went to bed early. Today was relaxing if not mostly boring but he had little doubt he would be wishing for boredom by the end of this trip.

XXX

Aeolus was walking through a magical library keeping an eye out for what tomes he could see. He had learned long ago that you could learn a lot of things about a person from the books one chose to surround themselves with. This rule was especially true for those in the magical community.

They led him to an old and beaten up tome that the seller claimed was legit. He went through the standard greeting and not so subtle questions to ensure he knew what he was about. His father's name carried weight but his did not.

He looked at the tome and could tell that most of the damage appeared superficial and was caused by wear and use rather than exposer to the elements. That was good because that meant that there was little degradation of the material itself. The materials, bindings, writings and the theories expressed in the book seemed sound.

Now most authenticators use machines and carbon dating to ensure age; but with magical tomes that was pointless. There were spells that could age the paper and fool the machine and spells many used to preserve magical books that made their dating appear to be younger than they actually were. In fact, just being around magic for so long could give the paper properties that made modern day dating tests a pointless waste of time.

People like his father and him were trusted for their unique skills and integrity. Aeolus would say that was priceless, but it actually cost a lot. It took him over four hours without break to verify the magic tome as authentic.

He left to take a break while they did their final haggling on the price. Then he would try to get their business to restore the tome. He was already here and most magical groups would never let a tome out of their sight so he stood a pretty good chance. His minimum cost was determined by the shop price, plus his father's cut. Then he would pitch them a price higher than that and start haggling. The amount of money above the minimum was his cut. In the end he would end up with a price much higher than his minimum which would make him happy and their haggling would make them happy.

_(One Week Later)_

Aeolus had finally finished restoring the tome to its original condition.

Fixit and he were in contact for the last week coming up with a plan to infiltrate the other sect in the area. He was currently on his way with all his bags with him. He would check them in to a new hotel nearby in case he had to make a quick getaway. Besides it gave him a local place to hide out in case they blocked his exits. Unlikely seeing that the town he was going to was a port town with a small private airport. Hell, it was a tourist spot so there were plenty of busses and trains to grab. One tourist was the same as another after all.

_(Later That Night)_

Aeolus was in his costume on a roof across from the sects' hideout. He could see an invisible barrier around it to protect it. He smirked at their complacency. They expected their barrier to be enough and posted no lookout or cameras.

Aeolus used his kunai to slice the magic of the barrier and made his way in pat the simple pad lock. He would have to hurry since he didn't know how long it would take them to realize their weak barrier had fallen.

A man in a red cowl came running around the corner with a wickedly curved knife in his hand. Aeolus wasted no time flinging a weight into his face and watching him drop like a marionette with his strings cut.

Damn, their barrier must have also had an alarm built into it letting them know when it had fallen. He raced down the halls as fast as he could. Fixit had gotten the plans for this place somehow and he had memorized every square inch of it. He couldn't wait until he could load blue prints into his goggles.

He found their entrance to the basement rather easily and wrenched open the door but immediately had to dive bomb out of the way as a ball of energy shot at his face and exploded against the wall.

Stupid! He knew better than to not expect someone waiting on the other side of the door. If his ex-League of Shadows teacher ever heard of this he would never hear the end of it.

Aeolus threw his weighted chain down the hall and watched in amazement as it collided with another bolt of energy and was knocked back towards him as it destroyed the magic. His chains should have destroyed the magic and passed through unimpeded. That meant that he was too late and these cultists were getting a boost from their demon.

It was the only way that their magic could be potent enough possibly impede his chains. He looked over his shoulder and saw glowing eyes and frothing mouths. Aeolus sighed. Why couldn't he have gotten an easier job?

Aeolus got three kunai tips in one hand and threw them down the hall. The possessed sorcerer threw three more blasts of energy which hit two of his blades. The third hit him in the shoulder and he screamed in agonizing pain.

Aeolus paused for a second. He thought that one of the advantages of possession was that you could ignore pain? Oh wait, his dagger could cut energy and _spirits_, duh. Aeolus had to duck as a weak and sputtering blast almost hit him in the face.

Fight now, think later.

Aeolus dashed and brought out another weight and slung it towards the sorcerers face and heard a satisfying crunch as he pulverized nose. The man stumbled but did not fall but by this time Aeolus had gotten close enough to knock him out with his bare fists.

Aeolus looked around the basement and only saw a dozen books or so. When this was done he would check to see if any of the others needed to be destroyed and if any of the others were good enough to sell. He was in the book business after all and those cheapskate monks sure as hell weren't paying him. He looked around the basement and didn't see anyone. He had heard there were three of them so he couldn't drop his guard.

Like he ever would let his guard down in an evil cult building with a demon possessing book. Part of him wished he had sensory skills so he could be sure the other cultist or some other crazy possessed person wasn't lying in wait for him.

In truth he could probably gain great sensor skills if he trained his eyes a little but it wasn't worth the risk. It was safer for him and the world if his eyes never matured. Until they were mature no one could discover what his eyes really were.

He heard something to his right and looked to see the hopefully last cultists coming at him with an ordinate blade. He rolled back and dodged and got a good look at the blade. It was an ordinate dagger with a green gem in the cross guard and a double edged blade with tiny script all over it. Aeolus' eyes saw the gem as glowing as brightly as a sun spot and the blade with a dark mist wafting off it.

Aeolus glanced at the altar at the end of the room and saw the book but it had a cut out in the shape of the dagger. Shit. He was told that the tome was the problem and that a demon had dominion over it. It meant that it was the equivalent of a phone and all he needed to do was stab it to cut the connection permanently. He just hoped it wasn't what he thought it was and looked back at the sorcerer.

He saw the sorcerer's aura and gulped. He could see the demons aura fused to his and it was the same as the one on the dagger. One on hand this meant he wasn't dealing with some world ending demon which was great. But, this meant that the demon was actually in the dagger and he would have to destroy it to kill the demon.

Considering how those energy bolts had knocked away his chains he hoped his kunai were strong enough to shatter that dagger. But he had one advantage. Normally destroying a demons container held the risk of releasing the demon but his blade would attack the demon at the same time so he could attack with impunity.

"**Hello human. I see you are here to stop me, but you too late. I have already been freed from my prison. This body is now mine and I will use it to take over this city. Then I will use this place as my base as I TAKE OVER THE WORLD!"**

Aeolus stood there in shock. Not because of the demons plan because it was a common demon theme apparently. Nor was it because he worried about the demons plans to take over the world, because this demon was nowhere near _that_ strong. No, it was because he was monologuing. He had thought Raven and the other Titan's had been lying or at least exaggerating that every super villain monologed at the drop of the hat.

In fact the demon was _still_ doing it.

"**-and then I will use my hoard to go across the seas of your world to wage war with-"**

Aeolus tuned him out and got a blade ready. He could go for the body but his real target was the dagger. More specifically the green jewel in the guard.

Aeolus made a dash for the jewel with a kunai in one hand and a slipped his other into his silver utility belt.

The sorcerer made a wide inward stab towards Aeolus' head which he easily ducked and countered by stabbing the jewel in the dagger.

Aeolus felt the resistance on his dagger both physically and magically until it was his dagger that shattered.

Aeolus saw spots as the feedback from his weapon being destroyed sapped some of his strength. Aeolus immediately dropped a smoke bomb and rolled to safety. Good thing to, because he felt the air the blade made as it just missed his face from within the smoke screen.

Damn his chains weakness. When his chain was destroyed it would sap some of his energy from the point of destruction to the tip. The more that was lost the more energy and vitality he lost. If enough was taken he would pass out. Also if enough was destroyed at one time the shock would knock him out. He didn't know for certain, but it stood to reason that if a large enough chunk was taken at one time the shock would probably stop his heart.

He felt a sharp spike of the ambient magical energy in the room. Before he could begin to guess what it was a shock wave through him off his feet and into one of the basements concrete walls. The impact knocked the air out of him and he fell to the floor but got immediately up. He had been trained to never stay down on a fight. That lesson had literally been kicked into him by his teacher.

Unfortunately Aeolus didn't have the opportunity to catch his breath as the shock wave that threw him also dissipated his smoke screen.

The sorcerer tried to come in close and make quick work of Aeolus. His strikes were wide and sloppy though so Aeolus grabbed his wrist in order to subdue him but apparently he had super strength as well and flung Aeolus into the wall again with one arm.

Aeolus let go and tried to get some distance. It had looked like he had thrown him on reflex, like swatting a fly. Aeolus couldn't risk fighting him up close or he would knock his head clean off. Aeolus rolled away and back up to get some breathing room. Aeolus looked at the knife and weighed his options. That's when he saw it. The light from the blade was fractured like its lens was damaged but the jewel looked solid at first glance. He looked at the sorcerer and saw that one of the auras wasn't mixing with other so perfectly anymore. His blade must have done some damage but just not enough. A plan came to Aeolus, a stupid, crazy, probably suicidal plan, but a plan none the less.

So Aeolus charged with a kunai in each hand and went for the knife. He ducked another sloppy attack and hit the jewel again with the same result. He tried to focus and not be distracted by the sudden loss of energy and rammed the possessed sorcerer in the shoulder. It didn't matter how much uber demon strength you had, strength had nothing to do with balance. The sorcerer stumbled and Aeolus made his move with his other dagger and this time it cracked before his blade was destroyed. Aeolus was rewarded with dimming vision before he felt a shoe impact with his chest causing him to fly back.

Aeolus struggled to get up and made two more blades. He couldn't take much more of this. If he passed out he was as good as dead. He looked up and saw the blade inches from his face and insticively jerked out of the way and only received a small cut on his cheek as he rolled away.

At least until his cheek stated burning and every little prick on his body felt like he was being stabbed. Even his clothes felt like they were made of sandpaper and were rubbing off his skin. Aeolus screamed out in agony. Even screaming hurt. He was barely holding it together as he watched the possessed sorcerer rush him with a triumphet grin on his face. The bastard was enjoying his pain.

Through sheer force of will and teenage stubbornness Aeolus watched as the blade came towards him and brought the two daggers in his hand towards either side of the daggers gem as it neared his heart. Time seemed to stop for Aeolus as he saw his blades hit the gem on either side as the blade was a mere twelve inches away from ending his life. Then the gem and his blades shattered and time moved again as the resulting shockwave threw him, again.

The first thing that came to mind as the shock wave through him was that he was that some of the pain had receded. Then he slammed into the basement wall for the second time tonight and immediately retracted his observation. He could also feel sharp pains all over the front of his body and he could feel himself loosing consciousness as the combination of the strain and drain on him became too much. He was about to fully pass to the vision of something on his HUD flashing when he felt a new sharp pain in the back of his hip where his belt was and the world came back into focus. What the hell was that?

Aeolus reached for the metal pouch that was located where the pain was and when his fingers brushed across the extra small pouch it hit him what it was. Fixit had installed a slim pouch about an inch wide that had a chemical that would help him recover consciousness. It had a hypodermic needle on the back side and would deploy automatically when he was knocked out. He was glad Fixit had installed it but it had felt like he was getting stabbed. He slowly looked around and saw that the sorcerer was no where in sight, shit.

He suddenly became aware of a putrid stench in the air that had him gagging. How had he not noticed this smell before? He also noticed that the walls had color on them which was odd because he was sure that they were regular concrete walls before. He noticed his goggles were blurry and wiped the red stuff on them bringing the details of the room out. He immediately regretted his actions. The red stuff on his goggles and on the walls was a fine mist of blood mixed with organs and body parts. Well, he guessed he found where that sorcerer went, everywhere. He looked down at himself and had to resist puking again. The sharp pains all across his front were little bones that had stabbed him when the sorcerer had done his best impersonation of a frag grenade. And was that a tooth in his arm?! He pulled it out and sure enough it was a human canine.

Aeolus stumbled out of the basement and out of the building into the alley across the street. He knew he should have looked through the other books before leaving but he knew his pick me up was only temporary and the idea of passing out there just screamed bad to him.

Aeolus grabbed a trash bag out of the dumpster in the alleyway and tore it open to reveal a nondescript backpack. He opened it up and grabbed the hoodie inside it and threw it on while he took off his goggles and belt and shoved them inside the bag. He then proceded to untuck his pants to finish off his look.

Aeolus walked discretely to the youth hostel two blocks over that he had a room at and went in the back door. He had originally planned on picking the lock but partyers had long since broken the lock.

He went up to his small room and immediately stripped and took a shower. Aeolus had gained a large aversion to being covered in exploded human remains. Aeolus made sure he cleaned and dressed his wounds with the first aid kit from his suitcase. Some of the stuff was old age while some of the stuff he used were given to him by Fixit. The last thing he did before passing out was use an auto injector full of an anti-infection cocktail. Fixit had warned him he was going to feel ill after using it but Aeolus had just been hit by human shrapnel of a demon possessed human that lived in a dirty basement so injection it was. Aeolus having finished had finished his first aid promptly passed out on his small bed in his even smaller room.

XXX

Aeolus woke up with what he believed to be the equivalent of a bad hangover. His head hurt worse than the time when the monks let him drink their special wine and he indulged too much waking up on the roof the next day.

Aeolus put his head back down to ease his throbbing and enjoy the quiet.

"Checkout! Get out early ya' hooligans!" Yelled the hostels warden through the door.

"Of course." Like he was going to catch a break.

He got up much to the protest to his body. He wished he had some kind of super fast healing but alas he did not. But for some reason, even though he healed at the same rate as everyone else he never got a scar. Even when he broke bones there was no evidence of them on the x-ray after he healed. He didn't realize this until Fixit gave him an exam and told him he had no scar tissue anywhere. Fixit was the one who x-rayed him to ensure any bones he had broken when he was younger had healed correctly. It was just another example of his inexperience.

How was he supposed to fight super powered villain's and apparently demons when he didn't seem to fully understand his own abilities. He had just last night realized he could sense large spikes of energy. He had done it in Raven's room and a few times before that but until last night he had been unaware of the fact. He also realized that he had panicked while fighting that demon. All that he had to do was wrap him up in chains and the fight would have been over. But instead he had stupidly gone head to head against a super strength demon possessed sorcerer wielding a knife that causes extreme pain at the slightest scratch. He had also realized that the first possessed sorcerer he had beaten had been weakened when his blade stabbed him. Since when could his blades do that? The chain portion sure, but the blade? Then he realized what had happened and smacked himself in the forehead. Which immediately brought him to his knees due to his throbbing head.

He could damage the demons through their containers like he did with the dagger. It stood to reason that he should have been able to the same thing via the bodies they possessed. I mean he could hurt ghosts and people with his abilities so it should have been obvious that he could hurt demon spirits in human bodies. So many things had gone wrong that night. He had even forgotten tie up the other two sorcerers in his injured state last night.

_(Two Hours Later)_

Aeolus sighed as he stood in a hoodie and civilian clothes in front of the same place he was last night. He had a filtered mask he had bought in his pocket because contrary to all universal reason, he expected the smell from last night to have only gotten worse. That, and he wanted a way to hide his face if those sorcerers from last night were still there.

Aeolus entered warily and saw nothing out of the ordinary which bothered him. He had just fought here and there should have been tons out of the ordinary. When he got to the basement he cursed. The basement looked like the rest of the place. Like no one had stepped in here for years until he came along. The whole place was empty and cleaned up. By cleaned up he meant there was no evidence of anyone being here. There was even a layer of dust on the place to make it look undisturbed and abandoned. He looked behind him and the only evidence he could see of anyone having been here was the shoe prints he had just made.

Damn it, he had screwed up. He had taken care of the demon he was after but now there was another lesser demon running around with a sorcerer companion. He was going to hear it from the order. Oh who cared? He had done as he was asked and he had earned a break.

In fact he had a German beer tour to get to in an hour. Sure he was only fifteen but he was in Europe and he was an adult by every standard worth measuring except age. Oh and sharing a bed with a woman. But all in good time. Even though his hormones were praying for now rather than sooner and banish thoughts of later. Stupid hormones. He was kind of starting to believe that God had cursed men. Why else would he give man two brains but only enough blood to run one at a time?

Aeolus left the building just missing a man in all black dressed kind of like a ninja.

The man entered the place and saw the footprints and frowned. Apparently they had missed their mystery assailant from last night. Whoever he was he had interfered with their plans when he had somehow killed a demon sealed in a dagger by destroying the dagger. Whoever he was he had made some powerful enemies in the League of Assassins and didn't even know it, yet.

**Some people have been making comments on certain grammar mistakes I make. While some are on accident others are on purpose. Because no one thinks or speaks in perfect grammar. For example, when I write "Me and Raven…" I know it is supposed to be "Raven and I…" grammatically but he doesn't talk like that so I do not write like that. But this is not to say not to let me know of any mistakes because I would really love to know incase they're not on purpose.**

**I know I have been away for a while but I am not abandoning any of my projects. I have been extremely busy and will continue to be for the next few months. I will try to do what I can but the real world comes first.**

**Finally I know I switched from League of Shadows to League of Assassins. It was on purpose and the reason will be revealed later. **

**As always review, favorite and follow.**


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